Stepping up attack on Biju Janata Dal, the Odisha BJP unit on Monday alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been captured and is regulated like a puppet saying that the regional party’s leaders have manufactured artificial intelligence-generated deepfake videos of Patnaik during the poll campaign.

The saffron party’s statement at a time when the first phase of simultaneous elections is underway has triggered a major political controversy.

BJP’s National Vice-President Baijayant Panda speaking at a press conference here on Monday charged that “the pre-recorded videos in which Naveen Babu is appearing is not his own. It is becoming clear that these are deepfake videos”.

Alleging that by applying artificial Intelligence (AI) technique, he said deepfake videos have been created by BJD leaders

That’s why; the challenge thrown at Patnaik by PM Modi to name the districts on a public platform without a prepared script was justified, he said.

”The videos that are being shown and the live videos of Patnaik on public platforms are entirely different. The manner in which his aide (indirectly referring to his closest aide and bureaucrat-turned politician V K Pandian) is holding the microphone before him and controlling him to speak, it has become crystal clear that these videos are the computer generated deepfake AI videos,” Panda, BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate contesting the Kendrapara parliamentary constituency, further said.

He (Patnaik) should be asked whether he knows what is being spoken by deepfake videos, Panda said.

”In Odisha, the government has been outsourced; it is a matter of deep concern. In the whole of Odisha, it is being widely discussed and debated. People are also deeply worried. PM Modi had raised the issue; the same should be raised by everybody,” Panda, once a trusted aide of Patnaik before he was ousted from BJD, said.

”The man (Patnaik) who was voted to power in Odisha has been caged and is being controlled like a puppet. Whenever we are seeing him, there is the presence of one man (indirect reference to Pandian) only. Whenever he goes in the chopper or faces the camera or at the stage or public platform, only one individual is sighted,” he mocked.

Questions are being raised as to why Odia leaders are not found in close proximity to the CM, Panda pointed out. ”Before 2018, Naveen Patnaik was not the same as he is at present. The change in Patnaik is being felt after 2018. Naveen Babu was ‘captured’ and it has hurt the Odia pride. During this period, the missing key episode of Lord Jagannath’s Ratna Bhandar (treasury) was reported,” he said.

The manner in which Patnaik is being controlled just like a puppet has given rise to Odia ashmita (pride) issue, he concluded, appealing to the people of the State to have a deep thought over this emotive issue.