The much awaited West Bengal assembly elections are scheduled to be held from March 27 to April 29, 2021, a newspaper clip image is going viral. The newspaper headline says, “66 fake EVMs seized from the house of a BJP leader.” While the headline is clearly visible, the newspaper clipping texts are not clear in the viral image. The newspaper clipping is viral with a description to portray that the news of ’66 fake EVMs seized from the house of a BJP leader’ is of West Bengal.’ The image is shared with the caption, “Complete preparation for the formation of government in Bengal.”
After running a reverse image search, it was found that the viral image dates back to 2018, December from Beawar in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district. As per the article, the city police caught 66 “symbolic EVM promotional material” from a house. “The election symbol and name of independent candidate Surendra Goyal from Jaitaran region was mentioned in them,” the report added. Surendra Goyal was contesting as an independent candidate from Jaitran in Rajasthan State Assembly Elections, 2018.
Goyal was earlier a Cabinet Minister in Rajasthan when BJP leader Vasundhra Raje was the Chief Minister. Later in 2018, Goyal was denied a party ticket, after which he resigned from BJP and fought as an independent candidate from Jaitaran. Goyal resigned from his position in 2018, after his ticket was cut and he accused the party of cheating on him. Several other leader placed their resignation during the same time. Hence, a news story from Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018 is being shared with a false context of it being related to West Bengal state elections in 2021.
