BJP, AIMIM Forming Alliance For WB Polls? No, Screenshot is Fake

We found that the screenshot is fake and BJP has not announced any alliance with AIMIM for West Bengal elections.

A screenshot of a fake tweet was circulated to falsely claim that BJP has formed alliance with AIMIM for the state elections in West Bengal.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas

A viral screenshot of an alleged tweet shared by the Bhartiya Janata Party is being shared to claim that the party has formed alliance with AIMIM for the upcoming West Bengal elections. However, we found that the screenshot is fake and BJP had not made any such announcement till the time of publishing the article.

CLAIM

The alleged tweet mentioned in the screenshot reads: “We have formed alliance with AIMIM in upcoming WB elections. (sic)”

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

The viral screenshot found space on Twitter and Facebook with multiple users sharing it.

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Twitter/ Screenshot)

You can view the archived version here.(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

As per the screenshot, the tweet was shared on 20 November. We scanned through the official Twitter account of BJP and found that no such tweet was shared by the party on the said date.

Further, we found that the viral screenshot is fake due to various reasons. Firstly, the Twitter handle mentioned in the screenshot is @bjp4india. But the official Twitter handle of BJP is @BJP4India, that is, it has letters in uppercase.

Left: Viral screenshot. Right: Tweet shared by official handle of BJP.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Secondly, the viral screenshot only shows the number of likes and retweets and there is no mention of quote tweets. We scrolled through the BJP handle and tweets that had way less engagement as compared to the viral screenshot had also garnered quote tweets.

Looking at the engagement statistics mentioned in the screenshot, it raises suspicion that a tweet about an important political development received no quote tweet.

Left: Viral screenshot. Right: Tweet shared by official handle of BJP.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Moreover, we could not find any news report stating any sort of alliance between BJP and AIMIM for the upcoming West Bengal elections.

Evidently, a screenshot of a fake tweet was circulated to falsely claim that BJP has formed alliance with AIMIM for the state elections in West Bengal.

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