An old video of BJP supporters vandalizing the party office in Bengal is falsely linked to the upcoming elections - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 8, 2024
A viral video allegedly showing individuals vandalizing the BJP office is being linked to the upcoming 2024 general elections (here, here & here). It is being shared with claims that it represents public dissatisfaction towards the BJP. In this article, let’s fact-check the authenticity of the assertion made in this claim.
Claim: Recent video of people vandalizing BJP office ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Fact: The visuals date back to March 2021, when BJP supporters in West Bengal’s Malda area vandalized the party office due to dissatisfaction with the distribution of party tickets. The video has nothing to do with the upcoming 2024 general elections. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The video does show vandalism in a BJP office; however, it’s important to note that the footage is not recent. It dates back to 2021, depicting an incident where BJP supporters in West Bengal attacked the party office due to dissatisfaction with the distribution of party tickets.
Using reverse image search on the screenshots from the video, we found a Bengali news article from March 2021 that featured the same visuals. According to this article, the individual identified in the video is Sagarika Sarkar, a BJP leader and member of the Malda district council. She, along with her supporters, allegedly vandalized the party office in Gazole, a municipality in the Malda district of West Bengal, due to dissatisfaction with the distribution of party tickets.
Further search yielded us a news video that reported the same viral visuals. According to this report, the footage depicts BJP workers in Malda vandalizing the party office due to issues related to ticket distribution.
Additional footage showing BJP workers vandalizing the party office in Malda due to dissatisfaction with candidate selection can be seen here, here & here. All these reports confirm that the video is unrelated to the upcoming 2024 general election and people seen in the video are not common citizens.
Previously, identical visuals were circulated with claims that BJP supporters were vandalizing their party office due to a lack of oxygen cylinders. However, this claim was debunked by FACTLY. A detailed fact-check of this claim can be viewed here.
To sum up, an old video of BJP supporters vandalizing the party office in West Bengal is falsely linked to the upcoming elections.