A couple of videos are being shared widely on social media with a claim that they show Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma being attacked and chased away by the people. The videos are being shared in the context of the upcoming 2022 Assembly elections in UP. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Videos show UP Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma being attacked and chased away by the people.
Fact: Both the videos are neither related to UP Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma nor Uttar Pradesh. The first video was taken in April 2021, in the context of the Bengal Assembly elections, when BJP candidate Anirban Ganguly’s vehicle was attacked. The second video shows a recent attack on former Jharkhand BJP President Ravindra Rai in Bokaro by protesters, who are agitating against the exclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi from the regional language list of the State’s newly made recruitment policy. Also, there are no news reports about any recent attack on Minister Shrikant Sharma. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the screenshots of the first video were run through Google Reverse Image Search, no specific information regarding the video was found. However, on searching with keywords on YouTube, the same video was found to be uploaded by ‘Nandighosha TV’ in April 2021. In the title, it can be read that the video shows a BJP candidate being chased away by villagers in West Bengal.
According to ‘Sangbad Pratidin’, the man being chased away in the video is Anirban Ganguly, the BJP candidate from Bolpur in the West Bengal Assembly Elections – 2021. Anirban Ganguly had reacted through a tweet on the incident which can be seen here. More information regarding the incident can be read here and here.
The second video has been previously debunked by FACTLY when it was shared with a similar claim. The video shows a recent attack on former Jharkhand BJP President Ravindra Rai in Bokaro by protesters, who are agitating against the exclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi from the regional language list of the State’s newly made recruitment policy. The detailed fact-check article can be read here. Also, there are no news reports about any recent attack on Minister Shrikant Sharma.
To sum it up, the videos in the post are neither related to UP Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma nor Uttar Pradesh. They are being falsely shared as visuals of people attacking UP Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma.
