The Left Front organized a huge rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Sunday, 28 February, among the enthusiasts of the assembly elections in West Bengal. The Congress and the recently formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) also participated in this rally. Significantly, this time in West Bengal, the Congress and ISF have formed an alliance with the Left. On social media, many are sharing two images of a huge gathering with the claim that these are visuals from Sunday’s Brigade Parade Ground event.
Verified Twitter handles of Congress leaders and units have also shared the images with the caption, “Sea of people throngs at the Joint Rally of @INCIndia & @CPIM_WESTBENGAL at Brigade Ground in the Heart of Kolkata! This shows the anger of people in West Bengal, This will surely give sleepless nights to rulers in Delhi as well as Kolkata.”
The official Twitter handle of West Bengal Congress first tweeted one of the images claiming it to be from Brigade Parade Ground on Sunday but later deleted the post.
Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that a huge crowd gathered at the Left Front, Congress and ISF rally in Kolkata on 28 February 2021, but the picture going viral is of February 2019, when before the Lok Sabha elections The Left Front organized a similar rally in this ground. The same image was found, available in the stock photo gallery of Alamy. According to the caption, the picture was taken on February 3, 2019. “Left activist from different part of state take part in the Left front Brigade rally ahead of General Election 2019,” says the caption. The photo credit is given to “Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/Alamy Live News”. A similar picture was published on the website of “People’s democracy”, the weekly newspaper of CPI(M), on February 10, 2019.
Another picture which was printed on the website “India Content”. According to all these websites, this picture of the huge crowd gathered at the Brigade Parade Ground was captured during the Left Front rally on February 3, 2019, before the Lok Sabha elections. Hence, it is confirmed that though the Left, along with allies Congress and ISF, organised a huge rally at Brigade Parade Ground on February 28, the picture being circulated is of a Left Front rally two years back at the same venue.
