The first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections was held on 23 April 2026, with polling being held in 152 constituencies across north Bengal and several districts in the southern part of the state. Against this backdrop, one video is going viral on social media with the claim police personnel thrashed TMC workers for sitting near polling booths and campaigning during the first phase of West Bengal Assembly elections. The video shows a police officer slapping and lathi-charging two men seated on the side of the road beside a Trinamool Congress (TMC) banner.
Let’s check the truth
Fact check:
We started our investigation with a reverse image search on Google, and the results led us to a similar video uploaded on a Facebook post on 29 July, 2023. This indicates that the video is not recent and not related to the recent West Bengal assembly election.
We conducted further searches using these hints, and we found a News18 Bangla report of 8 July, 2023 which included the same visuals. The report mentioned allegations of bomb blasts in Basanti during the West Bengal Panchayat elections in July 2023. The description states, “Allegations of bomb blast in Basanti last night. Bomb recovered on the side of the road on the morning of the election day. Panic in the area. Police in place to control the situation. Action is taken whenever they see a crowd. Sometimes they chase with sticks. Uniformed people were also seen beating.”
So, it is clear that an old and unrelated video from 2022 is falsely shared as a recent incident during the West Bengal election.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be Misleading. This video dates back to 2023, and is not from the ongoing West Bengal assembly election.
Title: Old video falsely shared as police action against TMC workers during phase 1 voting in West Bengal
Written By: Usha Manoj
Result: Misleading
