Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh , this Sunday i.e 20th February flagged off the BJP’s “Vijay Yatra” in Kasaragod district of poll-bound Kerala. Party sources said the theme of the yatra would be ‘corruption-free Kerala, anti-appeasement politics and comprehensive development of Kerala’. Union Home Minister Amit Shah would address the final leg of the yatra scheduled to culminate in Thiruvananthapuram on March 7. As many as 14 Maha rallies and 80 public meetings will be organised as part of the yatra. Several national BJP leaders and Union ministers will also join the yatra. BJP leaders claim that several popular faces would declare their allegiance to the party during the yatra.
Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, V K Singh will take part in the rally at Kannur, considered as CPI-M citadel on February 22. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will participate in the rally in Kozhikode on February 24. BJP National spokesperson Shahnawas Hussein will take part in a rally in Malappuram district which has a Muslim majority.
Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar will inspire cadres in the Palakkad district at the rally on February 26. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi will campaign for the party in Thrissur. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will engage in the rally scheduled at Ernakulam on February 28.
Following this event, a post went viral, in which a large gathering of people forming the BJP symbol lotus is being circulated on social media linking it to the event. The picture is being shared with the caption, “Pic of the day from #Kerala. #KeralaWelcomesYogiJi”.
Anti Fake News War Room ( AFWA) has found that the post is spurious.Though Yogi’s Kasaragod rally on February 21 witnessed massive crowds, this particular picture was taken in April 2015 when BJP workers in Gujarat’s Dahod were celebrating the party’s foundation day. Sources confirmed that BJP workers gathered at a college ground in Gujarat’s Dahod and formed a huge party flag to celebrate the BJP’s 35th foundation day on April 6, 2015. As per the report, around 25,000 BJP workers, dressed in green, saffron, black and white, formed this “human flag”. Hence, it can be concluded that the claim along with the viral picture is misleading. The picture is almost six years old and not from Yogi’s rally in Kerala on Sunday, which too witnessed mammoth crowds.
