India TV Fact Check: Every day, some video or the other goes viral on social media with fake claims. In order to caution you against such misinformation, we present India TV Fact Check. Recently, a video of people welcoming a BJP candidate with a garland made of shoes went viral on social media with a claim that this happened during the campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. However, our investigation has unveiled that this video is being disseminated out of context, and its connection to the Lok Sabha 2024 elections is incorrect.
What is going viral?
On social media platform X, a user named @Rajikul2441 posted a video showing a BJP leader being garlanded with shoes during a campaign. The caption read, "#BreakingNews Special gift given to BJP leader" along with the hashtag #LokSabhaElection2024. This tweet was made on April 19, coinciding with the first phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
This is going viral on social media
India TV did investigation
India TV's Fact Check team initiated an investigation into this claim. We took a screenshot of the video and used Google Lens to conduct a search, which yielded several results. Among them, we discovered a YouTube link from ANI that featured the same video shared on social media. Upon examining the description and date of publication, it was revealed that the video dates back to January 8, 2018. Additionally, the description indicated that BJP candidate Dinesh Sharma was garlanded with shoes by villagers in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh.
Further investigation via Google led to a news report by Scroll.in, which shed light on the complete truth behind the incident. According to the report, a resident of Dhar in Madhya Pradesh welcomed a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader by garlanding him with shoes. The incident occurred during the BJP leader's campaign in Dhamnad town for the municipal elections. The person who garlanded the leader said, "There is a serious problem of water. We had complained about it. Our women went to the then-chairperson to complain, but a complaint was filed against them. Even at night, they were called to the police station several times. That's why I did this."
News article related to the viral claim
What came out in fact check?
It has been discovered through investigation that a video from 2018, showing a BJP leader being garlanded with shoes, is being inaccurately shared on social media in the current context.
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