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Multiple Facebook posts claim to show an Indian politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he was attacked while campaigning ahead of elections in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 2022. However, the image used in the posts has been shared in a false context; it has circulated in reports since 2021 about a politician attacked at a farmers' protest in the western state of Rajasthan. The image was shared here in a Facebook post on January 25, 2022. Screenshot of the false post. Taken January 28, 2022. The image shows a man with a torn vest and shirt walking along a street accompanied by police. The post's Hindi caption translates to English as: Condition of a BJP leader while he went for an election campaign, he had to inform Yogi that he had come alive, #UPElections2022. The BJP is the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh where elections will be held from February to March 2022. Yogi Adityanath is the chief minister of the state. The image was also shared here , here and here on Facebook with the same claim. However, a reverse image search found the original photo published here on the Hindi website AajTak News on July 31, 2021. The headline of the article in Hindi translates to English as: Rajasthan, farmers protesting against Indian farm laws attacked a politician tearing his clothes, police charged at the farmers with batons. The story states that BJP politician Kailash Meghwal went to a farmers' protest and was attacked in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar city. Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post (L) and AajTak's website (R). Corresponding images of the incident were also published by o ther Indian media -- for example NDTV and ANI -- on July 30, 2021. Indian farmers staged various protests throughout the country in November 2020 after the ruling BJP government passed new agriculture laws. The protests continued for almost a year until the government announced in November 2021 that the laws would be repealed.
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