The video does not show worldwide campaign against BJP ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections

The video shows an anti-BJP campaign that was carried out ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections in 2021.

A video shows several people holding up placards and urging to not vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The video is going viral with the claim that it shows a worldwide protest against the BJP before the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections in May 2023. 

In the video we can see some persons holding the placards contain the same text “No Vote To BJP” in English and “No division in Bengal” in Bengali written on it. The video is edited to show people from locations such as Davis, Berlin, Helsinki, London, New York and Los Angeles passing around the note to each other.

The caption of the viral video states, “NO VOTE to BJP” Across the globe everyone says #Karnataka | #KarnatakaElections2023

Archive link

Another tweet with the caption “Across the world say No Vote To BJP !! #KarnatakaElections2023”

Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a keyword and reverse image search on Google, whose results led us to a Twitter handle named “No Vote To BJP” tweeted the same video on April 24, 2021. The video was tweeted with a caption saying, “Bengalis across the world saying “No Vote To BJP”.”

The Twitter page describes itself as a no-vote campaign against the BJP leading up to the West Bengal assembly polls in 2021.

Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search for ‘No Vote for BJP Bengal’. Its result led us to many news articles, such as ones by The Wire and The Hindu dated February and May 2021, respectively. The campaign spread over time.

According to a report published by The Times Of India in April 2021, the campaign was spread to 20 districts in West Bengal. One such protest was in Kolkata, where people can be seen holding a “No Vote To BJP” note.

We found a clearer version of the video on ‘No Vote to BJP”s YouTube channel as well, which had also shared it on 2 Apil 2021.

Taking account of these evidences we can clearly understand that an old video of a campaign against voting for the BJP in West Bengal is being falsely linked to the upcoming 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. The video shows an anti-BJP campaign that was carried out ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections in 2021; it has no links with the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections.