Fact Check: Old video of people vandalizing BJP office falsely linked to 2024 LS polls
The claim is misleading as the video shows BJP workers vandalizing their party office over ticket denial in Malda, West Bengal.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 6 April 2024 11:03 AM GMT
Screengrab from the misleading post. (Source: X/@mulnivasi_raj)
Claim: This video shows the public venting their frustration with the BJP by vandalizing the party office ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Fact: The claim is misleading. The video depicts BJP workers vandalizing their party office in Malda, West Bengal, over ticket denial ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.
Social media users shared a video of people reportedly vandalizing the BJP office. The users are taking a dig at the BJP’s election slogan ‘Abki Baar, 400 Paar’. The captions accompanying the posts suggest that people dissatisfied with the BJP have resorted to vandalizing the BJP party office.
“The common people of the country are making their significant contribution by voting with full preparation to help the BJP win 400 seats,” wrote an X user while sharing the video. (Archive)
Several X users shared the video claiming the same. (Click here, here and here to see the archived versions of the posts.)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim misleading as the video shows BJP workers vandalizing their party office over ticket denial in Malda, West Bengal.
Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found a video report by India TV published on March 19, 2021, which showed identical visuals. According to the channel, the disgruntled workers of the BJP vandalized their office in Malda after their favourite leader was denied a ticket in the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.
We also found the screengrabs from the video in a report published by ABP Ananda (Archive ) on March 24, 2021. According to the report, the BJP suspended its Malda Zilla Parishad member Sagarika Sarkar over the complaint of vandalizing the party office. It mentioned she was angry after being denied the ticket.
As per media reports (Archive), on March 18, the BJP released its candidate list for Malda district. Subsequently, a faction of dissatisfied BJP workers took to the streets and vandalized party offices (Archive) in the district, calling for the replacement of candidates.
Hence, we conclude that the viral video of BJP workers vandalizing their party office in Malda, West Bengal, is being falsely linked to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
