Congress leader Surendra Rajput accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of unofficially boycotting ABP News anchor Sandeep Chaudhary for asking difficult questions. Rajput made the statement after the BJP slammed the Opposition INDIA bloc on Thursday for releasing a list of TV news anchors it will boycott.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Rajput said, BJP spokesperson has been boycotting anchor Sandeep Choudharyji's debate on #ABP NEWS for a month. Dare any anchor or journalist question BJP!"
The BJP is said to have sent its spokesperson on Chaudhary's debate on ABP News last on August 15. At the time, the news anchor asked difficult questions to MP Anurag Thakur. Following this, no official spokesperson allegedly made an appearance on the debate.
INDIA blocs boycotts 14 TV news anchors
On Thursday, the INDIA bloc released the names of TV news anchors it would boycott. Congress leader Pawan Khera shared the list saying, "Decision taken by INDIA Media Committee September 14, 2023 Pursuant to the decision taken by the INDIA Coordination Committee in its meeting on September 13, 2023, the INDIA parties will not send their representatives on the shows and events of the following anchors."
The boycotted news anchors are Aditi Tyagi, Aman Chopra, Amish Devgan, Anand Narasimhan, Arnab Goswami, Ashok Shrivastav, Chitra Tripathi, Gaurav Sawant, Navika Kumar, Prachi Parashar, Rubika Liaquat, Shiv Aroor, Sudhir Chaudhary and Sushant Sinha.
Criticising the Congress, Amit Malviya, the national convener of the IT cell of the BJP, said, "So I.N.D.I Alliance has released a list of journalists, who refused to even bend, when the Opposition expected them to crawl. They should wear it as a badge of honour. More power to them."