A video of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray being persuaded by local party members to address the crowd for a few minutes before leaving, is being shared with the false claim that he was not allowed by Congress workers to give a speech.
BOOM found that the claims are false, the video in fact shows people urging Uddhav Thackeray to speak for a longer time than what he had available.
Amar Kale, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar's (NCP-SP) candidate from Wardha, Maharashtra was scheduled to address a crowd in his constituency on April 22, 2024 in the presence of Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. They are part of the Mahavikas Aghadi, a coalition between the Shiv Sena, NCP, and the Congress.
The viral video shows Amar Kale and Uddhav Thackeray along with other leaders on the stage while claiming that Kale and the rest denied Uddhav Thackeray from giving a speech. Thackeray's statement, "I will speak for 5 minutes" is used to imply that he was insulted by the Congress workers who were not letting him address the crowd. A user on X wrote, "What a fall !!Uddhav Thackeray is the other name of SHAMELESSNESS. Watch how congress workers of Wardha denied Uddhav to even make speech in a rally. Ye log ladenge Modi se ??"
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The post is being shared with similar captions on Facebook.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral claims are false, the people around Uddhav Thackeray urge him to speak for a longer time and they do not stop him or deny permission. A full version of the video shows Thackeray speaking for approximately 10 minutes after the confusion subsides.
We noticed the logo of TV9 Marathi on the viral video, along with the location of Wardha. Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search for a longer version of the viral video on TV9 Marathi's YouTube channel.
The video was shared on April 22, 2024 with the title 'Uddhav Thackeray LIVE in Wardha.'
At 1:34:33, Thackeray says, "Keeping the time constraints in mind, I also need to leave," while explaining that he would not be able to speak for too long.
At 1:34:56, two men come up to Thackeray and one of them says, "Saheb, you have to speak."To this Thackeray says, "I will speak for five minutes." This reply of Thackeray has been shared out of context in the viral video to claim that he was denied from speaking.
Other statements by the people around Thackeray urging him to speak by saying, "Speak for half an hour, 15 minutes," and "Everybody here has come to listen to you" have been overlaid with a comical background music in the viral video, and hence are not audible.