Fact-Check: Benjamin Basumatary Is Not a Part of BJP’s Ally UPPL in Assam

UPPL clarified that Basumatary is not associated with the party since his suspension in January.

Fact-Check: Basumatary was suspended from the UPPL in January. 

(Source:Altered by The Quint) 

After Assamese politician Benjamin Basumatary's photo sleeping amongst notes of Rs 500 went viral, social media users shared the image claiming that Basumatary is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) alliance partner United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) in Assam.

• This claim was also shared by the Congress' official X (formerly Twitter) account on 27 March.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 246.4K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is this true?: The claim is misleading.

• UPPL clarified on their official X account that Basumatary is not associated with the party and was suspended in January.

How did we find out?: At first, we checked UPPL's social media handles and found that the party had issued a post regarding Basumatary's association with the party.

• They stated, "Basumatry has not been associated with UPPL since his suspension on 10th January, 2024 (sic)."

• The party also released an image of the 'release order' noting the suspension of Basumatry dated 10 January.

• The Times of India in its report stated Basumatary was suspended after several complaints and allegations by various individuals and members of the public, accusing him of engaging in widespread corruption and misusing funds during the execution of various government programs.

• LiveMint reported Basumatary's side, who commented that the image was five years old and was spread across platforms as part of a "political controversy." He also claimed that he was 'blackmailed' with this photo.

Conclusion: The image is being shared with a false claim that Basumatary is a part of the UPPL party which is BJP's alliance partner in Assam.

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