A viral graphic claiming Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut made a remark referring to Uddhav Thackeray as the ‘emperor of Muslim hearts’, is fake.
Assembly elections in Maharashtra are scheduled for November 20, 2024, with results set to be announced on November 23.
The fake graphic designed to look like a social media post by Marathi newspaper Lokmat, includes Raut's photo along with a quote in Marathi that translates to ""If people call Uddhav Thackeray the emperor of Muslim hearts, what is wrong with that? A son of emperor of Hindu hearts can also be a king of another religion."
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(Original text -लोकं उद्भव ठाकरेंना मुस्लिम हृदयसम्राट म्हणत असतील तर त्यात वावगं काय? हिंदू हृदयसम्राटचा मुलगा पण एका दुसऱ्या धर्माचा हृदयसम्राट असू शकतो. - संजय राऊत)
Bal Thackeray, the founder of Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray's father used to be called 'Hindu Hriday Samrat' (or emperor of Hindu Hearts) by his supporters.
‘Muslim Hriday Samrat’ is a play on that term targeting Uddhav Thackeray.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena were in an alliance for around 35 years until the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election, after which the alliance broke. Uddhav Thackeray then aligned with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and formed a government. In 2023, following a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde, who had the support of the majority of the party’s MLAs, a new government was formed in alliance with the BJP. Shinde claimed this shift was due to Uddhav Thackeray’s alliance with the Congress and NCP in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, arguing that Thackeray had abandoned the Hindutva ideology championed by his father.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral graphic is fake. Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut did not refer to Uddhav Thackeray as an emperor of Muslim hearts as being claimed in the graphic. Lokmat also refuted posting the graphic.
We first ran a search on Lokmat's social media accounts for the viral posts, and did not find results matching it.
The search led us to another graphic using the same format, colours and a photo of Raut posted by Lokmat in July 2024.
The original graphic had different text from the text in the viral graphic strongly indicating that the viral quote is fake and has been made morphing the same template.
The comparison between the viral post and original graphic can be seen below:
Lokmat refutes fake graphic
Lokmat posted on X on October 19, 2024, stating that the viral graphic with Raut's quote is fake and has not been posted by the Marathi news outlet. Lokmat also warned about another fake graphic being attributed to it which reports that Aditya Thackeray would not contest from Worli assembly constituency facing pressure from the Congress party.
The caption when translated from Marathi to English reads, "A misleading graphic about Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) party leaders Aditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut has gone viral under the name of ‘Lokmat.’ However, no such graphic has been created by ‘Lokmat’; this is a hoax perpetrated by supporters of a particular ideology on social media using the name and logo of ‘Lokmat.’ The graphic features photos of Aditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut and has gone viral under the name of ‘Lokmat.’ However, this was not produced by ‘Lokmat.’ Some individuals created this prank using a template similar to Lokmat’s design. We urge our readers to follow the official Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts of ‘Lokmat’ for reliable information and to avoid falling prey to such false propaganda."