The BJP on Saturday accused Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray of running a fake news campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party said MNS chief had been putting out videos and documents captured from unverified websites on the social media to level baseless allegations against Mr. Modi, while he himself had been a staunch opponent of the government’s attempts to curb such news, BJP leader Ashish Shelar said.
The BJP's ‘explosive’ conference at an auditorium here was laced with video and documentary evidence to debunk the claims of the MNS chief during his last 19 rallies across the State. The BJP teams had put on display two LCD screens — one as ‘fake videos’ and the other as ‘real development’. Calling the MNS a “third party” of the Congress formed to criticise the BJP and Mr. Modi, Mr Shelar said the MNS chief had not adopted even a single tree at the Shivaji Park where he resides while continuing to throw muck at the Prime Minister’s work in his adopted villages on the banks of the Ganga.
Mr. Shelar played videos and clips showing the work done under the Central schemes in the adopted villages. Mr. Thackeray had claimed in one of the rallies in Mumbai this week that none of the villages had basic infrastructure in place. “But Mr. Thackeray is picking these videos from unverified accounts which do not belong to the BJP. Why should we even respond to him when the videos are fake. He will receive the right answer from the voters.”
The party also displayed videos of the Prime Minister along with a young girl reciting the Hindu scriptures during a poll campaign. A second screen played Mr. Thackeray’s interview to a private TV channel in which he claimed Mr. Modi prompted the girl to call Congress president Rahul Gandhi a ‘pappu’. “It is shameful the MNS has used this fake video to give a full interview and hit out at the Prime Minister. He did not even spare a young girl for cheap publicity,” said Mr. Shelar.
