'BJP spread fake photos of Left rallies at Brigade'

KOLKATA: The turnout at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Brigade rally has sparked off a controversy.

Even as the leaders of the saffron party boasted of a massive turnout on social media, supporters of the Left Parties alleged that the former had circulated fake pictures of the rally. It was alleged that the BJP had tried to pass off the photographs of a 2019 rally—held at the same venue—of the Left Front as their own.

CPI(M) will lodge a complaint with the Election Commission against the fake news which was circulated.

The picture was shared by official handles of BJP Tamil Nadu, BJP Punjab and BJP members Tajinder Bagga, SG Suryah, Bhanu Jalan and CA OP Mishra. The left parties claimed that they had shared the same picture on social media last year.

"The BJP leaders had blurred the photograph in such a way that the red flags could be mistaken for saffron," the left party supporters alleged. In fact, the photograph was reportedly published in the weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of India (CPI), People's Democracy. Meanwhile, the left party supporters trolled the BJP leaders, including defector Suvendu Adhikari and Arjun Singh, on social media for sharing the fake photograph.

The photograph was also shared from the official handle of BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who was arrested for instigating violence that led to desecration of the statue of Vidyasagar in 2019. It had also been alleged that another picture shared from the social media handle of BJP member CA OP Mishra—captioned as 'How's the Josh?'—was apparently clicked at the 2014 rally of the Left Front.

Meanwhile, sources claimed that Modi's rally at Brigade drew a modest crowd. "The streamlining of the crowd gave an impression of packed ground in some photographs and videos shared on several social media platforms. Large portions of the field had remained empty. The ground was tactfully partitioned by bamboo barricades. The attendees were mainly packed right in front of the main dais," sources added.

BJP had left no stone unturned to bring people to Modi's meeting. Three trains had been hired for Rs 60 lakhs and more than 20,000 buses deployed to bring their supporters.