The Election Commission of India (ECI) has officially announced the schedule for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, and campaigning by all political parties is now underway. Amid this, a video showing a leader being welcomed with a garland of shoes is circulating on social media with the claim that the incident took place in Bihar ahead of the upcoming 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows a BJP leader being welcomed with a garland of shoes in Bihar ahead of the 2025 Assembly elections.
Fact: The video is not related to Bihar or the 2025 Assembly elections. It actually shows a November 2018 incident from Dhamnod in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, where candidate Dinesh Sharma was greeted with a garland of shoes during a civic election campaign amid local protests over water shortages. Multiple reports from October 2025 noted public resistance to leaders during campaign visits in Bihar over local issues, but the video in question is unrelated to the 2025 Bihar elections. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A reverse image search of key frames from the viral video led us to an X post by ANI dated 07 January 2018 featuring a screenshot of the same footage, stating that candidate Dinesh Sharma was made to wear a garland of shoes while campaigning door-to-door for the civic election in Dhamnod, Madhya Pradesh. This confirms that the video predates the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections and is unrelated to Bihar.
We also found multiple media reports from January 2018 reporting this incident (here, here, and here). According to these reports, the elderly man used the garland of shoes to protest against the acute water shortage in the area, alleging that women who raised complaints were repeatedly called to the police station. Reacting to the incident, Dinesh Sharma said the man belonged to his own community and that they would discuss the issue. Elections for 19 civic bodies, including Dhar, were scheduled for 17 January 2018.
Factly had previously debunked the same video when it went viral with the claim that a BJP leader was welcomed with a garland of shoes in Bihar ahead of the 2020 Assembly elections.
Further, multiple media reports (here, here, and here) stated that during the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, several leaders from both the ruling party and the opposition faced public resistance during campaign visits, as locals voiced concerns over unfulfilled promises, rising prices, unemployment, and poor infrastructure, indicating growing voter frustration.
To sum up, an old video of a BJP leader being welcomed with a garland of shoes in Dhar, M.P., is shared, falsely linking it to the 2025 Bihar elections.
