No, This Video Doesn't Show Locals Denying Entry to a BJP Leader in UP!

The incident took place in Bihar in 2020 and the man seen in the video is JD(U) leader Maheshwar Hazari.

A video showing a man being stopped by people is being widely shared on social media to claim that locals are not allowing leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to enter their villages in Uttar Pradesh.

The claim takes a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and adds that the people have "rejected their government". This comes in the backdrop of UP elections that are scheduled for early 2022.

However, we found that the incident took place in Bihar in 2020. The man seen in the video is Janata Dal (United) leader Maheshwar Hazari.

CLAIM

The claim along with the video reads: "उत्तरप्रदेश में परिवर्तन की लहर चल चुकी है !
मोदी जी और योगी जी की शाम ढल चुकी है ! घुसने नहीं दे रहे हैं लोग अपने गांवों में बीजेपी के लोगों को, दो बार के विधायक को वापिस लौटाया...! (sic)"

(Translated: The wave of change has started in Uttar Pradesh! Modi ji and Yogi ji's evening is over! Locals are not allowing BJP leaders to enter their villages, they denied entry to the two-time MLA.)

The video shared by Facebook account 'Baaki Sab Theek Hai' had garnered 2.5 million views and 58,000 shares at the time of writing this article.

The verified Facebook account of Haryana Youth Congress also shared the video with a similar claim.

Several other social media users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter and the archived version of the posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We divided the video into multiple keyframes using InVID and reverse searched them on Yandex that led us to a YouTube video uploaded in October 2020.

The video that carries the viral visuals identifies the man seen in the video as Janata Dal (United) MLA from Kalyanpur, Bihar.

VIDEO IS FROM BIHAR, NOT UTTAR PRADESH

Taking a cue from here, we searched on Google with keywords 'कल्याणपुर विधान सभा लोगो रोका विधायक' (Translated: Kalyanpur Vidhan Sabha people stopped MLA) that led us to an article published by Aaj Tak on 19 October 2020.

The article that carried the viral visuals mentioned that the video is from Samastipur's Kalyanpur constituency where JD(U) leader and former minister Maheshwar Hazari had faced resistance from the locals while campaigning for the 2020 Bihar elections.

The locals questioned Hazari, who has been an MLA from Kalyanpur constituency for 10 years, about the developmental work that he had done in the area.

News outlet NDTV, too, had then carried a report on the incident.

Further, Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav had also tweeted the video in October 2020 stating the aforementioned information.

बिहार सरकार के मंत्री और कल्याणपुर विधानसभा क्षेत्र से 10 वर्ष से विधायक महेश्वर हजारी को आक्रोशित जनता ने सड़क नहीं तो वोट नहीं बोल कर अपने गांव से भगा दिया।

नीतीश कुमार जी के कागजी विकास की पोल खुल चुकी है। चाहे वो चमकी बुख़ार हो, जल जमाव हो, बाढ़ हो, सुखाड़ हो, कोरोना हो। pic.twitter.com/w219uOcmuQ

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) October 19, 2020

As per Lok Sabha's official portal, Hazari was elected to 15th Lok Sabha in 2009 from the Samastipur constituency in Bihar. Presently, he is the deputy speaker of Bihar Vidhan Sabha.

Evidently, an old video of locals questioning a JD(U) leader in Bihar was falsely linked to Uttar Pradesh.

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