Fake poll propaganda leaves film stars troubled

Kochi: Fake election propaganda through social media in the name of popular film stars in poll-bound Kerala has left the actors troubled.

Malayalam movie star Prithviraj has dismissed that he has put out "statements" endorsing various political parties, as "rumours".

"For the past few days, I've been seeing 'statements' apparently put out by me, endorsing various political parties leading up to the impending elections.

"Although I do have my own clear perspective on our socio-political scenario, I would like to put it out that none of these have actually been said by me..and they belong to some closet genius/geniuses who think online anonymity is a license to use anybody's name for any propaganda that suits their convenience," he said in a Facebook post.

"Hope this puts all rumour mills to rest! And yes..

exercise your right to choose..make your vote count! Let's keep the world's largest democratic machinery ticking!," the actor said.

Actor Neeraj Madhav also termed as "fake news" featuring him endorsing a political party.

`"I would like to dismiss this news as a piece of someone's imagination. With all due respect to every political party, I have strictly no intentions to be involved in any sort of political campaigning and neither do I support any party," Madhav said.

Such rumours started doing rounds through social media after Congress, Left parties and the BJP decided to field popular film actors as their candidates for some Assembly seats in the politically-conservative Kerala.

While film stars K B Ganesh Kumar and Mukesh contest as the Left candidates Pathanapuram and Kollam assembly constituencies respectively in Kollam district, the Congress gave ticket to film actor Jagadish against Ganesh Kumar.

BJP has decided to field Bheeman Raghu as its candidate against Ganesh Kumar and Jagadish from Pathanapuram.