A video is being widely shared on social media in which a crowd is seen thrashing a man and the car he is in. Those sharing the video claim that it shows the crowd rallying against a BJP leader when he went to ask for votes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The text on the video read, “Beating a BJP leader who came to ask for votes in the name of religion. Good job. I wish every unemployed person in India would wake up like this. Had fun watching the video. (translated from Hindi)” The video was posted on April 11, 2024, to imply that the political leader was attacked while on the campaign trail for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
SouthCheck found the claim to be false. We found that the viral video is old and of BJD leader Prasanta Kumar Jagdeva.
On doing a Google reverse image search, we found a similar video uploaded by Kalinga TV on March 12, 2022. The report was titled ‘Over 20 Injured As Chilika MLA Prashant Jagdev's Runs Car Over Crowd.’ The news report had visuals of the incident from multiple angles.
We compared the viral image with the video clips uploaded by Kalinga TV and found similarities. A man wearing a blue striped t-shirt can be seen in both videos.
Taking a clue, we searched with appropriate keywords and found a report published by the Indian Express on March 13, 2022, titled ‘Odisha: 22 injured as Chilika MLA rams car into crowd, leader assaulted later’. The report stated that ‘Chilika BJD MLA Prashant Jagdev was reportedly assaulted after he allegedly rammed his car into a crowd in Odisha’s Khurda district Saturday afternoon. At least 22 persons, including seven police personnel, were injured in the incident, police officials said.’
A screenshot of the video was also uploaded by The Hindustan Times on March 12, 2022. The report said that many people were injured as a suspended Biju Janata Dal MLA plowed his car into a crowd of Bharatiya Janata Party workers in the Khurda district of Odisha.
We found that Prashant Jagdeva is still a member of BJD.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral video shows BJD leader Prasanta Kumar Jagdeva and not the BJP.
