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Reliance Jio Infocomm, promoted by billionaire Mukesh Ambani wrote to Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) - seeking strict action against Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel.

In a complaint to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India secretary S K Gupta last week, Jio said "in order to read meager gains in port-in numbers these service providers are intentionally defaming Reliance Jio by depicting it as against the farmers and projecting themselves as farmer-friendly while at the same time intentionally fanning the anti-government protests."

The actions by rival telecom companies are in violation of principles of tariff advertisement and TRAI orders, Jio said.

These companies continue to remain directly/indirectly involved in supporting and furthering insinuations and false and frivolous rumours of Reliance being an undue beneficiary in the farm bills," it said.

The telco also laid blame on these campaigns as one of the main reasons for  "large number of port-out requests".

"We submit that Airtel and Vi remain unabated in pursuit, this vicious and divisive campaign through its employees, agents, and retailers. They are inciting the public by making preposterous claims that migrating Jio mobile numbers to their network would be an act to support farmers protests," it said in its complaint to TRAI.

While Vodafone Idea did not immediately react to Jio's charges, Airtel termed the complaint as baseless and asked the government to dismiss it.