The Verdict: Fake
Speaking to Logically Facts, Bharatiya Janata Party’s National General Secretary, Arun Singh, called the viral letter “fake”.
What is the claim?
An image of a purported press release by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dated May 22, 2024, is being shared on social media with a claim that the BJP has appointed political consultant Prashant Kishor as its national chief spokesperson. The letter is also being circulated on WhatsApp.
Archives of such posts can be accessed here, here, and here.
Screenshots of the purported letter viral on social media (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)
Kishore, who has previously worked with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its election campaign in 2014, has predicted a win for the party in the current elections.
However, the BJP has not appointed Kishor as their national chief spokesperson. The letter is fabricated.
What did we find?
We looked at the press release section on the BJP website and its social media accounts, and found no release that announced the appointment of Kishor as the party spokesperson. All the press releases uploaded to the website on May 22 are about the election campaign.
The last announcement of a political appointment is from March 27, announcing CR Kesavan as the national spokesperson of the party. On the same day, the party also announced the state incharges for the elections.
The spokespersons section on the BJP website lists all its designated national and chief spokespersons. While their chief spokesperson is Anil Baluni, also their media in-charge, they have 29 national spokespersons. Kishor is not one among them.
The viral press release was undersigned by National Secretary Arun Singh, who told us that the letter is “fake”, adding that it has been “photoshopped”. While there are no glaring discrepancies in the viral letter, it does misspell Kishor’s surname as ‘Kishore’.
While Kishor hasn’t commented on the matter, the X (formerly Twitter) account of his political campaign Jan Suraaj put out a post (archive here) accusing the Congress party of sharing the now-viral letter.
Screenshot of the post by Jan Suraaj. (Source: X/@jansuraajonline)
It is to be noted that Kishor joined the Janata Dal (United) in 2018 and was appointed the party’s vice-president. He was expelled from the party in 2020. While he used to run the political consultancy I-PAC, he parted ways with the company in 2021 and launched Jan Suraaj.
The verdict
A fake press release has been shared to claim that political consultant Prashant Kishor was appointed as the national chief spokesperson of the BJP. The BJP did not make any such announcement.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts and republished by OrissaPOST as part of the Shakti Collective.
