2018 incident of a BJP leader being welcomed with a shoe garland falsely linked to Bihar election - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 20, 2020
Update ( January 24, 2022):This video is being widely shared again ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.
A post with the video of a leader being welcomed with a garland made out of shoes is being widely shared on social media with the claim that the man who was welcomed with a shoe garland is a BJP leader and the incident took place in Bihar in the wake of upcoming Bihar assembly elections. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: BJP leader being welcomed with a shoe garland in Bihar.
Fact: The incident actually happened in Madhya Pradesh back in 2018 when a BJP leader Dinesh Sharma was campaigning for local body elections. He was welcomed with a garland made out of shoes. The incident has nothing to do with Bihar. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Reverse image search of the screenshots of the video led us to a 2018 news article which reported the incident. According to the article, when a BJP leader Dinesh Sharma was campaigning for local body elections in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, he was welcomed with a garland made out of shoes by an elderly man in order to express his dissent over the action taken by the authorities against their complaint about shortage of water.
Further search led us to a news video of the incident. Even this video report confirms that the incident took place in Madhya Pradesh back in 2018.
In the wake of the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, posts like these are being circulated on social media with misleading claims.
To sum it up, 2018 incident of a BJP leader being welcomed with a shoe garland in Madhya Pradesh is being falsely linked to Bihar election campaign.