Hyderabad: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday accused the Congress of circulating what he called an AI-generated photograph to inflate the crowd at the INDIA bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally, and mocked the party for executing the alleged manipulation poorly.
In a post on X, Rijiju said the party should have at least readied the image properly if it wanted to show a packed ground. He wrote: "Even the fake AI photo to show that Ramlila ground was full is not done properly by the fake narrative team of Congress Party!"
The picture, which circulated widely among Congress supporters and was also shared by former MP and CWC member Jagdish Thakor, reportedly showed AI renderings of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi on the stage that did not match the actual stage at the venue.
The row centres on attendance claims for the November 1 protest against alleged irregularities in the electoral rolls and the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision. The bloc had projected about 10 lakh attendees; BJP leaders said the ground was largely empty. MP Sambit Patra said 5,000-7,000 of the 28,000 chairs were vacant between 3:30 pm and 4 pm and about 40 per cent of the maidan was empty. “You can see in the background that 40 per cent of the Ramlila Maidan, 40 per cent of the space, was vacant," he said.
Congress countered with drone footage and images of its own to claim lakhs had turned up. Among those present were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Tejashwi Yadav.
At the rally Rahul Gandhi reportedly alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had facilitated vote theft, and said Kumar would be removed and jailed. He also reportedly accused the BJP and the RSS of trying to capture democratic institutions. Patra dismissed the charge, saying election results are challenged in court, not from a stage, and asked what petition had been filed.
The Election Commission and the Centre have said the SIR is meant to weed out duplicate and ineligible entries, and both the commission and the BJP have rejected the Opposition's allegations as a "fake narrative". The Opposition had staged a symbolic "impeachment" of the CEC at Kharge's residence the previous evening. (With inputs from media reports)