AAP, BJP approached IT cos to get voter info, bash rivals: Cobrapost

A fresh sting operation carried out by Cobrapost suggests that political parties in India are working in close quarters with software companies to manipulate social media campaigns, run negative campaigns against rivals and also engage in more nefarious campaigns like vote rigging. According to the sting footage, these IT-companies take anywhere between a few lakh to a few crores depending on the campaign. According to the footage, the Aam Aadmi party is among the political parties that reached out to these companies. Bipin Pathare, of Om communication (described as Cobrapost as crafty and ruthless) is captured on camera as saying, “they (AAP) asked me to donate a database of voters to them. But they refused to pay any money for our service saying they are a cash strapped party.” Pathare claims that his software firm has a database, containing booth by booth details of all the voters of the country. “Kisi ki bhi kundali pata par jato hai isse. Every smallest detail of the voter is available with us”. But this was not the most shocking revelation of the sting operation. Sometimes these company ‘services’ include the disenfranchisement of minority communities to prevent them from voting. [caption id=“attachment_1257279” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] Pathare claims that in an undisclosed constituency, where 60 percent of the voting population was Muslim, his company orchestrated a bomb blast to frighten the minority community. “They got scared and did not come out to vote. The rest was done by the booth management teams,” he claims. This, according to Pathare, benefited his client, one Praveen Jara, the Hindu candidate from the constituency. The sting operation further suggests that the exodus of North Eastern people from Bangalore, as well as a campaign against Nitish Kumar, alleging his involvement in the Patna blast were all campaigns initiated by these IT companies. “One of these companies claimed last night that the social media campaign against Tarun Tejpal is also being orchestrated by these IT companies,” says Aniruddh Behl, editor of Cobrapost. Cobrapost claims that the BJP is at the forefront of employing such companies for their social media campaign. “Our sting suggests that people who are running Narendra Modi’s campaign have hired more than 20 such companies,” adds Behl. Another IT company, Traims, which was one of the companies features in the sting operation, claims that around 3 percent income of the IT companies are as a result of this kind of political campaigns. The sting footage projects Tikaram Patel of Traims mentioning a BJP leader as one of his clients. The operations of these IT companies is not only limited to political outfits but, according to the sting operation, they work for multi national companies, NGOs and corrupt bureaucrats, who want to malign rivals. However, many of the claims by the Cobrapost expose were not verifiable, and many of the claims though captured on video, were not substantiated. In fact, there have been questions raised against the timing of such sting operations close to the elections.