Puducherry BJP accused of stealing Aadhaar info to add voters to WhatsApp groups

The Madras HC has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file a report in two days on the matter.The Madras High Court has ordered the Election Commission of India (ECI) to probe allegations of targeted campaigning by the BJP in Puducherry, wherein phone numbers of voters were obtained using data from Aadhar cards. The direction came on a petition filed by Puducherry (DYFI) President, who sought action against the party for targeting voters at the booth level and sending them ‘predatory’ SMSes to add them in a booth-level WhatsApp group of the BJP.In his petition, he stated that since March 4, several Puducherry residents have been receiving SMSes with an invite link to join a WhatsApp group. Adding that he also received one such message, the petitioner said, “Out of curiosity, I clicked on the invite link to find the source of that SMS. The link points to a constituency-booth level WhatsApp group (For instance, named BJP-PUD-Law-11-12, meaning Bharatiya Janata Party-Puducherry-Lawspet constituency number 11-booth number 12), the constituency and the booth the receiver of the SMS belongs to.” He alleged that several such booth-level WhatsApp groups have been created by the party to target the voters.The petitioner also…
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