JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) claimed Monday (November 18th) that it had revealed a secretive group that existed only to uncover information for a smear campaign against Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, local media reported.

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

Tjahjo added the group called itself "Jokowi's rivals", but he gave no specific details.

According to the Globe, the Democratic Party – led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – repeatedly fired criticism at the governor, but a member of the party's advisory board denied there was an organised campaign against him.

"Jokowi is not even a presidential candidate, the PDI-P has not decided," Melani Leimena Suharli told Kompas.com. "If there were good things, we would praise him, if there were wrong things, we would criticise him."

Jokowi is considered one of the top potential candidates to represent PDI-P in next year's presidential election.