A set of old images showing workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clashing with each other in West Bengal’s Howrah (North) in 2016 have been revived ahead of the upcoming state elections. On March 17, a clash erupted in the Coffee House of Kolkata, West Bengal. The clash happened when BJP workers entered the cafe and tore up posters on the walls of the staircase that said “No Votes to BJP”. In the backdrop of the above incident, netizens are sharing images claiming to be of the ruckus that happened in the Coffee House.
A Facebook user, SK Udin, shared the image with the caption, which translates in English as, “Traditional coffeehouse wreckage. These are the enemies of Bengal and Bengalis. If you vote for them, they will destroy Bengal.”
Twitter user Radhika Kashyap shared the images with the caption in Hindi, which translates in English as, “Bengal BJP will play between themselves.”
Twitter user Rofl Republic also shared the image with the caption, “Cadres of BJP Bengal rehearsing inside their party office of how they will transform #Bengal into Sonar Bangla.#NoVoteToBJP.”
Rohan Gupta, Chairperson of the social media department of Congress, shared the image with the caption, “BJP’s worker giving the trailer of Bengal’s golden future.”
As per the article, BJP workers had assaulted each other at a party meeting where actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was present.
Nearly 750 party workers in Howrah (North), along with 176 party booth presidents had then resigned to mount pressure on the leadership to expel “trouble-makers,” the report added.
But after conducting a reverse image research, it was found that the image dates back to 3 April 2016 with the caption: “Howrah: BJP workers clash with each other at a party workers’ convention for actress and BJP candidate from Howrah North Assembly constituency Rupa Ganguly (not in the viral picture) in Howrah on Sunday.” A video of this ruckus was published by India TV on its YouTube channel on April 3, 3016, with the title, ‘2 Groups of BJP Workers Clashed in Front of BJP Candidate Roopa Ganguly’.
However, chaos did ensue at the Coffee House in mid-March when BJP supporters donning saffron T-shirts entered the place and tore posters on the wall, which read ‘No Votes to BJP’. Hence, the viral image is old and not associated with the ruckus created in Coffee House.
