Fact check: TRAI denies Congress' claim of being prevented of sending SMS to its workers in Maharashtra

On Congress allegations that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had rejected its application to send SMSes to its workers in Maharashtra, the telecom regulator has now said that it did not receive any such application.

TRAI added that it had not approved individual SMS templates. "Apparently the application was submitted to one of the service providers who rejected it. TRAI was at no stage involved in this process. In fact, TRAI does not deal with approval of individual message templates," the regulator said in a post on X.


On Sunday, Congress data analytics department chairman Praveen Chakravarty said TRAI’s refusal to Congress to send the messages represented “perfect synchronisation between home ministry, Election Commission and telecom regulator to suppress?” He asked on X, “Does one need more telltale signs of guilt of Maharashtra election fraud than such coordinated moves by various arms of the govt to suppress and hide information?”

He had claimed that the application for sending the SMS was filed with TRAI as per the laid down process, and shared the screenshot of the message sent by authorities informing about the rejection of the Congress application.

Congress leader Manickam Tagore dubbed the TRAI decision as ridiculous and remarked that TRAI seems to have become the IT cell of BJP.

“Who controls this censorship chain? Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Gnaneshwar (Kumar). Home ministry surveillance. Railways/telecom ministry blocks communication. Election Commission silent spectator. One coordinated machine to hide the truth of Maharashtra 2024 fraud. Amit Shah, if Maharashtra elections weren't stolen, why are you so scared of a YouTube link,” he asked.