Old Video Of BJP Leaders Clashing In Odisha’s Balangir Goes Viral As Incident In Tamil Nadu

New Delhi: A video showing a group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders being thrashed by the public while campaigning is viral online as a recent incident from Tamil Nadu whereas the incident actually took place in Odisha and shows a clash between two groups of BJP leaders in October 2023, BOOM reported.

A caption on X reads, “Recent incident from Tamil Nadu- BJP, RSS’ antinational politicians were dragged from the stage and beaten naked. This will happen in the whole country now.”

(Original text in Hindi: “तमिलनाडु में अभी-अभी घटना हुई हैं 😊 भाजपा Rss के देशद्रोही नेताओं को रथ से नीचे उतार कर नंगा कर के पीटा और दौड़ाया 😂 ऐसा माहौल पूरे देश में बनने जा रहा हैं 😂👌🏻😂”)

Fact Check

BOOM found that the claims are false, the video is from October 2023 and shows a scuffle between BJP leaders in Balangir, Odisha. The comments under the viral video and found that a user had pointed out that the video was from Odisha, not Tamil Nadu. A user on X had also replied to one post sharing the viral video on the platform and said that it was from Balangir, Odisha, and showed two BJP factions clashing.

OdishaBytes had reported the incident on October 9, 2023, stating that the incident occurred during the ‘Mo Mati Mo Desha’ programme organised by the BJP. Samal had gone to Balangir to participate in the BJP’s “Mo Mati, Mo Desha” programme. The party took out a huge rally led by Samal from Bijakhaman locality in the town. Balangir MP Sangeeta Singh Deo and senior BJP leader Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo accompanied him. When the rally was passing through RTO Chhak, BJP’s district leaders Anant Das and his associate Balaram Sing Yadav went to present a bouquet to Samal. But they were opposed by another local leader Gopalji Panigrahi. This led to a scuffle between the two leaders. Soon their followers were engaged in attacking each other. In the process, the shirt of Das was torn off, said the sources. Das and Panigrahi lead rival factions of BJP’s district unit, they added.