An old video of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader being offered a garland of shoes by an elderly man during a campaign in Madhya Pradesh is being shared online, falsely linking it to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. BOOM found that the video dates back to January 2018 and the incident took place during the Dhamnod civic elections in Madhya Pradesh. In the 24-second video, a candidate is seen campaigning on the streets when an elderly man approaches him and puts a garland of shoes around his neck.
The video is being shared on X with the caption, “#BreakingNews People gave special gifts to BJP leader #LokSabhaElections2024 #NoVote4BJP #ShameOnBJP #1stPhase.”
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact check
BOOM found that the video of a BJP leader being offered a garland of shoes while campaigning is from January 2018 in Madhya Pradesh.
We ran a reverse image search of some key frames from the viral video on Google and found a report by ABP Live published on 8 January, 2018. The report was titled ‘MP: BJP candidate Dinesh Sharma made to wear garland of shoes while he was campaigning for civic election’ and carried visuals matching the viral video.
Click here for an archive.
According to this report, Dinesh Sharma, BJP candidate contesting the Dhamnod civic elections was campaigning in the area on 7 January, 2018, when he was approached by the elderly man who tried putting a garland of shoes around his neck. Sharma hesitated at first, but the man finally put the garland around him.
We also found a post on X shared by news agency ANI on 7 January, 2018. The post carried visuals matching the viral video with the text, “#MadhyaPradesh: BJP candidate in Dhar’s Dhamnod, Dinesh Sharma made to wear a garland of shoes by a man while he was door-to-door campaigning for civic election”.
The post carried a statement from Sharma, who responded to the incident and said that he would sit with the man and speak about his issues. “I am like their child,” he said, referring to the people of Dhamnod.
They are one of my own. There must have been something which upset him & he acted like that. We will sit together and talk. I am like their child: Dinesh Sharma, Dhamnod Civic election candidate, BJP pic.twitter.com/QtNjcKtu0d
— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2018
In another statement to ANI, the man who offered the garland to Sharma explained that he did so because of an acute water problem in his area. “Our women went to the then Chairperson to complain but a complaint was registered against them. They were called multiple times to police station even at night,” he said.
There's acute water problem. Had complained about it. Our women went to the then Chairperson to complain but a complaint was registered against them. They were called multiple times to police station even at night. So I did this: Man who made Dinesh Sharma wear garland of shoes pic.twitter.com/6DK4yh5Piu
— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2018
This story was originally published by Boom Live as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.
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