Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Monday claimed to have uncovered the existence of a shadowy group of operatives whose sole purpose was to dig up dirt on Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo and damage his reputation.

"I have received information that there's an effort to gather information about bad sides of Jokowi," said Tjahjo Kumolo, secretary general of the PDI-P. "The team also approaches media owners to reduce news coverage about Jokowi."

Tjahjo would not give any specifics about the supposed group or say who had backed it, but he did say that it had named itself "Jokowi's rivals."

Recent surveys hace placed Joko as a top potential contender in the 2014 presidential election, although the PDI-P has yet to nominate its candidate.

Democratic Party lawmakers have often been Joko's harshest critics: Ruhut Sitompul said Joko's policies were no better than those of Fauzi Bowo, the previous governor; Nurhayati Ali Assegaf said that he had not done enough to prevent fire in the city; Ramadhan Pohan blamed him for US spying because he allowed an embassy renovation; and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono blamed him for Jakarta's traffic.

Melani Leimena Suharli, a member of the Democratic Party's advisory board, denied the existence of a concerted smear campaign against Joko.

"Jokowi is not even a presidential candidate, the PDI-P has not decided," Melani said, according to Indonesian news portal Kompas.com. "If there were good things, we would praise him, if there were wrong things, we would criticize him."