Ballygunge assembly constituency in Kolkata is going for bypoll on April 12, 2022. The seat is set for a triangular contest between Trinamool Congress candidate Babul Supriyo, CPM’s Saira Shah Halim and BJP’s Keya Ghosh.
Ahead of the bypoll, a video of Babul Supriyo has gone viral in which he takes a dig at TMC and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In the video Supriyo is heard saying, “Tmc Hatao Mamta Didi Hatao Bangla Bachao” (Remove TMC, Remove Mamata Didi, Save Bengal.”)
The caption associated with the video claims that Supriyo took a jibe against its own party ahead of Ballygunge bypolls. The video is being shared with the Bengali caption: “সোজা বাংলায় বলছি- TMC হাটাও, মমতা দিদি হাটাও – বাংলা বাঁচাও, বালিগঞ্জ উপনির্বাচনে #TMC_প্রার্থী_বাবুল_সুপ্রিয়” (English translation, “Speaking straight in Bengal- Remove TMC, Remove Mamata Didi – Save Bengal, Baliganj by-election #TMC_candidate_Babul_Supriyo.”)
The link to the post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
On doing a Google Reverse Image Search with one of the screenshots, we found that a Twitter user had shared a screenshot of the same video on July 27, 2020. The video was shared with a caption that read, “The truth is out! Union Minister Shri @SuPriyoBabul stands ahead of @derekobrienmp ‘s engagements on #Facebook. Crores spent on social media campaign #সোজাবাংলায়বলছি by @AITCofficial , but the people of #WBengal has defeated the campaign. #BengalWithBJP proved again.”
On closely observing the image shared by the Twitter user, we found that the image mentioned ‘##সোজাবাংলায়বলছি’. Taking a hint, we searched with the keyword, ‘#সোজাবাংলায়বলছি, Babul Supriyo’ and found that the same video was uploaded by Babul Supriyo on his Facebook page on July 26, 2020.
We further found that Babul Supriyo had joined TMC on September 18, 2021, weeks after he was dropped from the Union cabinet. He was earlier in the BJP.
Hence, an old video of Babul Supriyo speaking against TMC and Mamata Banerjee has gone viral as recent. The video dates back to when he was in BJP and was campaigning against TMC.
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