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| - Fact Check: This video DOES NOT show NRIs campaigning against BJP ahead of Karnataka polls
A video created for the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls is now being shared ahead of the upcoming Karnataka elections. R
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from April 2021 and shows a grassroots platform against the saffron party that was formed during the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections.
With assembly elections in Karnataka just days away, have Non-Resident Indians also taken to campaigning abroad? If social media is to be believed, a group of NRIs have taken to campaign against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the incumbent party in Karnataka, and this has allegedly been captured on video.
In the 45-second-long video, Indians from Germany, Finland, England, and several parts of the US could be seen holding a placard that read, "No Vote To BJP."
Several Congress leaders and social media users shared this video with the "KarnatakaElections2023" hashtag alongside texts like, "Across the globe, everyone says ‘NO VOTE to BJP’.” The archived versions of such posts can be seen here and here.
India Today's investigation, however, found that the video is two-years-old and not at all related to the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections.
OUR PROBE
While looking closely at the “No Vote To BJP” placards, we noticed a line in Bangla penned underneath the English words that said, "There is no division in Bengal." This hinted at the possibility of the video being related to elections in West Bengal.
A subsequent reverse image search of keyframes of the viral video with relevant keywords led us to the original video tweeted by an account called “No Vote To BJP” on April 24, 2021. The tweet read: “Bengalis across the world saying ‘No Vote To BJP’.” This made it clear that the video was two years old and unrelated to the upcoming elections in Karnataka.
Notably, the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections were held in eight phases — starting from March 27, followed by the announcement of the results on May 2. Thus, it is clear that the video was aimed at the Bengal polls and not any other state.
THE 'NO VOTE TO BJP' CAMPAIGN
According to an analysis by The Hindu, the “No Vote To BJP”, a silent campaign before and during the West Bengal polls, helped the Trinamool Congress in a big way to derail the BJP's chances in the state.
This campaign was carried out on a large scale on social media and in the streets of Bengal through billboards, posters and leaflets that featured only four words — “No Vote To BJP” — without mention of any other political party.
A Times of India article from April 19, 2021, covered the implementation of this silent campaign. The platform reportedly was set up by a group of political and civil rights activists. Its main talking points against the BJP included employment loss during the Covid-19 lockdown, tribal rights on forest land, CAA, and more.
(With inputs from Ashish Kashyap)
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