BJP mayoral candidate under lens for circulating fake video

Hours before Manesar goes to its very first polls, BJP’s mayoral candidate Sunder Lal Yadav has come under the scanner for allegedly using a doctored video of Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh, claiming his support.

Calling the act a cybercrime intended to fool voters, the rival Independent candidate, Dr Inderjeet Yadav’s team has written a letter to returning officer for action.

According to the complaint, Sunder Lal used Inderjit Singh’s old video and made changes using AI. The video was issued to support the Narnaul candidate, and was allegedly doctored to show Singh's support despite his absence and silence.

“Sunder Lal is not getting support from his own party MP and Ahir stalwart Inderjit Singh. Despite campaigning for Gurugram’s mayoral candidate, Singh did not join Sunder Lal’s campaign, or even mentioned his name. Rattled by it, and scared of losing core Ahir voters affiliated to Singh, Sunder Lal released the video that showed Singh citing busy schedule as reason for not attending Lal's campaign, and seeking votes for him. The BJP candidate is fooling people with AI. We seek cancellation of his candidature. The party that promises transparency should now walk the talk and take action,” said Yadav.

While Singh did not issue a statement in this regard, sources close to him revealed that he had neither recorded or circulated the video in question. Lal remained unavailable for comment.

Lal is a close associate of Rao Narbir, who has been campaigning for him, while Singh — who had reportedly opposed his candidature during the party’s ticket allocation meeting — has kept a distance.