Babulal Marandi's six-year-old statement on PM Modi shared as recent falsely linking to Jharkhand Assembly polls

New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI) Amid the ongoing Jharkhand Assembly polls, a video of former chief minister and BJP state president Babulal Marandi criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone viral on social media.

The users sharing the video claimed that it was a recent clip.

An investigation by PTI Fact Check Desk found that the viral video was not recent, but from December 2018.

Marandi was the president of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) at that time and his party was in the opposition. In February 2020, he merged his party with the BJP. The six-year-old video was shared on social media as a recent one.

Among those who shared the video was political activist Yogendra Yadav who wrote, "BJP's Jharkhand state president Babulal Marandi is clearly pointing out every mistake of the BJP and the Modi government." Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan also shared the video and wrote, "BJP's Jharkhand president is speaking the truth. He is saying that if Modi ji remains the Prime Minister for five more years, India will become Pakistan." This post has been viewed millions of times so far and many users are sharing it considering it to be a recent statement.

On reverse searching the keyframes of the video, we found the original video on the Facebook page of a journalist named Ashok Gope. He uploaded it on December 14, 2018. He had uploaded many videos related to this interview of Marandi.

The Desk contacted Gope, who told PTI that this video was from December 2018. “At that time, I had interviewed Babulal Marandi. This interview took place at the Ranchi office of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.” He also told PTI that the viral video was a part of the same interview and that Marandi was not with the BJP then.

Marandi's media advisor Sunil Tiwari has also confirmed that this video was very old. He told PTI that at the time when he made the statement, he was not a part of the BJP.

Marandi became an MP for the first time in 1998 and was the first chief minister of Jharkhand (in 2000). He left the BJP in 2006 and formed the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) in 2009. In 2020, his party merged with the BJP after which he became the state president of the saffron party.

Hence, it is clear from our investigation that Marandi did not make the viral statement recently, but back in 2018 when he was not in the BJP.

Read the full fact-check report here: https://bit.ly/4hVdGIS For verification of any viral claims, you can contact the PTI Fact Check Desk via WhatsApp at +91-8130503759. PTI TEAM AS