A war of spoof videos is raging between the BJP and the Congress in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Though the battle of the ballot is still about two months away, the key players in the state’s political arena are already in the thick of a battle on social media. In one of the videos, the BJP’s sole star face, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan plays Bahubali to defeat Balalshah (Jyotiraditya Scindia). The state Congress chief Kamal Nath is shown as Hulk from one of the Avengers movie and as hero of the Hindi blockbuster Singham.
It all started around a week back, with ‘Youths of MP’ coming out with a morphed version of the magnum opus Bahubali, portraying a bespectacled and bare-chested Shivraj Singh Chouhan as ‘Madhya Pradesh ka Bahubali.’ The CM’s main opponent, Congress leader Jyotiraditrya Scindia is portrayed as the prime villain Bhallaldev, who is ultimately defeated by Shivraj even as awestruck Congress leaders, Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi look on. The video features union minister and Gwalior MP Narendra Singh Tomar as Bahubali’s trusted aide Kattappa.
The Congress supporters have responded to the Bahubali video with a spoof, in which the hero Kamal Nath is seen as Hulk from the Avengers movie, who thrashes Loki (Shivraj). And that’s not all. Another spoof video from the Congress stable shows Nath as the honest cop Bajirao Singham, who teaches a lesson to Shivraj. The spoof video, which is the morphed version of Ajay Devgn-starrer Hindi blockbuster Singham, also features Digvijaya Singh as the top cop, besides Jyotriaditya Scindia playing a second fiddle to Singham (Kamal Nath). Other cops include Nath’s trusted aide and former Dewas MP Sajjan Singh Verma.
The video ends with Nath telling the CM that it will be his ‘ghamand aur ahankar’ (pride and arrogance) that will eventually lead to his downfall. The latest spoof video, which seems to be the handiwork of BJP supporters, is targeted at Congress state working president and Rau (Indore) MLA Jeetu Patwari. The video uses visuals of a past interview of Jyotiraditya Scindia with a female TV journalist. But the dialogues between Amitabh Bachchan and veteran actress Leela Mishra from Bollywood’s all-time hit Sholay, have been mixed in the video in such a way that it appears that Scindia is himself maligning the image of Patwari.
Interestingly, in both the pro-Congress spoof videos, Nath is shown as the hero despite most pre-poll surveys predicting a close battle between the Chouhan and Scindia for the post of CM. Reacting to these spoof videos, MP BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal made it clear that none of the pro-BJP videos have been made by the party’s IT Cell.
While maintaining that there should be a comic element in the otherwise monotonous and bitter poll battle, Agrawal maintained “I personally believe that no spoof video should make a mockery of anyone.” The Congress media vice president Bhupendra Gupta denies while talking to Free Press that these videos are prepared by the Congress units and alleges “BJP may be behind these type of videos in which they are trying to put allegation on the Congress party”.
