BJP fumes as Shiv Sena 'hijacks' Palghar Lok Sabha seat
Palghar (Maharashtra), May 8: Amidst a massive show of strength, Shiv Sena candidate Srinivas C. Vanga on Tuesday filed his nomination for the by-election to the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency, virtually hijacking the seat from its fuming ally Bharatiya Janata Party.
The May 28 bypoll was necessitated after the sudden demise of sitting BJP MP Chintaman Vanga on January 30, who was the party's face and strongman in the predominantly tribal district bordering Gujarat.
This afternoon, Srinivas Vanga, accompanied by several Shiv Sena ministers and other leaders, arrived in an open truck procession with a sea of saffron flags and turbans in front and behind, thousands carrying posters and banners of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, to file his candidature.
The development came five days after the Vanga family met Thackeray in Mumbai and decided to join the Shiv Sena after accusing the BJP of "ignoring" them after Chintaman Vanga's death.
A rattled BJP leadership attempted to mollify the Vangas with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday publicly appealing to them to reconsider their decision.
Denying the family's allegations, he also declared that the BJP had virtually finalised giving a party ticket to a member of the Vanga family, but his pleas were ignored.
Over the next couple of days, several BJP state ministers, legislators and party leaders rushed to Palghar to convince the Vanga family to return to the party fold, but by Monday evening, the Shiv Sena finally cleared Srinivas Vanga's name as its candidate for the bypoll.
This is the first time that the Shiv Sena has practically "snatched" a seat from its ally BJP's quota even as the two parties are in alliance, both at the Centre and in Maharashtra.
However, in the past the BJP-Shiv Sena contested the 2014 Lok Sabha together, but fought the 2014 assembly separately after a poll-eve collapse of the alliance.
The severed alliance was resumed a couple of months after the Fadnavis-led BJP minority government took oath then (2014) and Shiv Sena walked over from the Opposition benches to become a ruling coalition partner.
While the BJP has not yet officially declared its nominee for Palghar, a new dimension was added when local strong force Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) on Tuesday announced it will contest the seat, as also the Congress.
Launching a veiled attack on Shiv Sena, the BVA said that in Palghar, only three parties are natural contestants for the seat - the BVA, BJP and Congress, "and the people will not tolerate any outsider (Shiv Sena) in the election, though the late Chintaman Vanga had earned great respect for his work and clean image here".
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Video of man attempting to strangle girl in UP is being shared with a false communal narrative
Fact check reveals accused, victim belong to same community
A video showing a young man attempting to strangle a young woman in the middle of a road while covering his face with a cloth is being widely shared on social media platforms (here, here, here, and here). The claim accompanying the video suggests that, in the Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim man attempted to kill a Hindu woman after she rejected his proposal. Through this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video shows a Muslim man attacking a Hindu girl in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: This viral video shows an incident that occurred on 04 January 2025 under the jurisdiction of the Gajraula police station in Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh, where a young man named Rahul attempted to strangle a young girl on the road. According to the Amroha police, there is no communal angle involved in the incident. Both the accused and the victim belong to the same community. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search. This search led us to multiple news reports (here, here, here, here, and here) featuring the same visuals. According to these reports, the incident occurred on 04 January 2025 in Salempur Gosai, under the jurisdiction of the Gajraula police station, in Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh. The reports identified the accused as Rahul. A nursing student, who resides in a village within the Gajraula police station area, was returning home from college on 04 January 2025. On the way, Rahul, a resident of the same village, stopped her. He then attempted to strangle her by wrapping a scarf around her neck. Some nearby bystanders intervened and saved the student. Following this, the police registered a case against Rahul and arrested him the next day. The reports further stated that Rahul had been in a relationship with the girl for the past four years. A few days earlier, he reportedly saw her talking to another boy, which enraged him and led to the attack.
According to a ‘Times of India’ report dated 07 January 2025, Amroha SP Kunwar Anupam Singh stated, “The police have arrested the accused and sent him to jail under judicial custody. The accused and the victim are from the same village. We have registered a case against the accused under Sections 126(2), 115(2), 76, and 109 of the BNS, along with Sections 7/8 of the POCSO Act, based on the complaint filed by the victim’s family members.”
In response to a viral video on X (formerly Twitter), the Amroha police stated that the accused had been apprehended and was currently in custody. They also confirmed that both the accused and the victim belonged to the same caste and knew each other prior to the incident. Additionally, the police dismissed the communal narrative being spread on social media and urged people not to share misinformation about the incident.
महोदय, कृपया अवगत कराना है कि उपरोक्त प्रकरण में प्राप्त तहरीर के आधार पर अभियोग पंजीकृत है, अभियुक्त को गिरफ्तार कर जेल भेजा जा चुका है। दोनो पक्ष सजातीय हैं तथा पूर्व परिचित हैं। कृपया भ्रामक खबर न फेलाये।
— Amroha Police (@amrohapolice) January 7, 2025
The Amroha Police has also issued a press release on this matter, which states that the accused in this incident is Rahul, son of Dharamveer. Additionally, we have contacted the Gajraula police station. In a conversation with us, an official from the Gajraula police station refuted the viral claim and clarified that there is no communal angle involved in this incident. He further stated that both the victim and the accused belong to the same community.
To sum up, there is no communal angle involved in the incident where a man attempted to strangle a young girl in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, on 04 January 2025. Both the accused and the victim in this incident belong to the same community.
