An image of a newspaper clipping claiming that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) released a video message to devotees to vote for Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is doing the rounds on social media.
A Facebook user posted the viral post with the following caption:
ধন্যবাদ জানাই ইসকন ও আজমীর শরীফের ট্রাস্ট কে।
সাম্প্রদায়িকতার বিরুদ্ধে মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের পাশে থাকার লড়াইতে অংশগ্রহণ করার জন্য।
(English: Thanks to ISKCON and Azmer Sharif’s trust.
To participate in the fight to stand by Mamata Bandyopadhyay against communalism.)
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post, and found it to be false.
We could not find any such news article published recently linking ISCKON to TNC or Mamata Banerjee. However, our team traced a news article from The New Indian Express, dated March 31, 2019, informing that ISCKON denied extending support to Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in 2019.
Searching further, we came across an official press release by ISCKON on the website of Mynation.com. The press release had been issued by Yudhistir Govind Das, national director of communications for ISKCON, on March 30, clearly stating that all news reports are false and misleading. ISKCON has nothing to do with the viral video. ISKCON has always been and will remain a politically neutral organisation. It does not support candidates of any political party against any other candidate.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral post, claiming ISCKON showed support to Mamata Banerjee for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, is false.
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