‘PR exposed on camera’: BJP alleges Congress paying influencers ₹25k to attend Rahul Gandhi's Pune event

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Congress of paying social media influencers ₹25,000 to attend Rahul Gandhi's 'Chhatron Ki Gunj' programme in Pune which is scheduled on August 22. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi (in picture) will be in Pune on August 22 for the ‘Chhatron ki Gunj’ event, a youth-centric outreach programme for issues related to exam irregularities. (PTI) The BJP shared a video on Friday claiming it shows a phone conversation between a social media influencer with a worker of the Congress party who asks her to attend the event and highlight it on her social media handle. The person on the other side of the phone can be heard telling the social media influencer, whose identity is not known, that she will be paid ₹25,000 which will also cover her travel expenses, to attend the event in Pune. Also read: 'Diverting attention from Vande Mataram row': BJP attacks Rahul Gandhi over dharna outside police station Though the caller, who identifies himself as ‘Shantanu’, does not explicitly mention Rahul Gandhi, 'Chhatron Ki Gunj' programme or any other identifier of the event, he can be heard telling the social media influencer that the event will take place on “22nd” and that she can upload the content related to it later that day or the next day. “Even public support has to be bought for Rahul Gandhi,” the BJP wrote in a post on X as it shared the purported video clip.

“Look at this video. Influencers are being offered ₹25,000 just to attend his Pune event. Rahul Gandhi’s leadership is so weak that even event attendance needs to be paid for. Yet, he questions EVMs whenever he loses,” it said. Also read: Rahul Gandhi sits on dharna outside Delhi police station over pellet gun row