The number 8000980009, on which Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi had asked people to give a missed call to show support for his anti-Gutkha campaign refuses to fade from memory. The Election Commission recently started monitoring the bulk SMSes sent from the same number asking lakhs of people to become Modi’s volunteers for the upcoming elections. However, after investigation it was found that all the expenses for the bulk SMSes are being paid by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The service provider company, to which the number belongs, had also carried out similar activities during Karnataka assembly elections. “They charged nearly 1.5 paisa per message and more than 30 lakh subscribers were sent messages four times. It is believed that the party wanted to meet its target to get more than one crore missed calls from the subscribers to judge Narendra Modi’s reach in the public and the response from them. However, only 30% of the target – 30 lakh responses from the people – could be achieved,” said a source in BJP.
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