RANCHI: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Thursday met the Election Commission to apprise it of a concocted news item doing the rounds in social media which may hamper prospects of the party in the bypolls scheduled for Monday.The party's central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said a poster is being circulated on social media at "behest of a private news channel", which is false and derogatory for their party's working president Hemant Soren."The news poster says - Hemant Soren ka sharmnaak bayan - agar Mahto ko aage badhne se rokna hai toh uske sabse bade agua Sudesh Mahto ko rokna bahut zaruri hai (shameful statement of Hemant Soren - If we have to tame the growing Mahto community, we must stop its biggest leader Sudesh Mahto)," Bhattacharya said.He further said the news was not only false but also politically motivated to irk people of a particular community just before the elections. "Our working president has not issued such a statement and we personally confirmed it from the editor of the news channel who also negated it officially," Bhattacharya said.JMM requested the commission to issue instructions on usage of social media and also direct the cybercrime cell to identify the origin of such a misleading campaign to take appropriate action immediately. "Such criminal acts will mislead the voters and would defeat the purpose of free and fair elections," he said.Apart from JMM, a delegation of the BJP also met the chief electoral officer at his office and handed over a list of sensitive booths of Gomia, demanding deployment of para military forces in adequate numbers so that the voters could come out and vote without any fear.The four-member BJP delegation said in the 2014 elections, supporters of a particular political party, taking advantage of the sensitivity of booths, compelled voters to cast votes in favour of that particular party. The delegation also met DGP and IG (operations) to give them the list of 85 sensitive booths, all of them in Naxal-dominated areas, and sought cooperation of the police administration in imbibing a sense of confidence among the voters.State media in-charge of the party Sanjay Jaiswal said, "Unless voters are encouraged to come out to vote, supporters of a particular political party would manage to rig the booths in their favour."

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