Did Uttarakhand BJP Minister Rebel Against the Party? No, Image is Edited

In the original photograph, minister Rekha Arya can be seen writing, "Ab ki baar, 60 paar".

A photograph of BJP Uttarakhand minister Rekha Arya has gone viral with a claim that she painted walls with slogans criticising her party. Arya is the Cabinet Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Dairy in the current Uttarakhand government.

The claim comes days after two BJP Uttarakhand leaders – transport minister Yashpal Arya and his son Sanjeev Arya – left the party to rejoin the Congress party ahead of the upcoming Uttarakhand Assembly elections next year.

However, we found that the photograph was an edited one. The original image posted on her official Facebook page shows her writing, "Ab ki baar 60 par" which means the party claims that it'll win more than 60 seats in the 70 seat Assembly.

CLAIM

Sharing the viral image, people said, "भाजपा सरकार की बाल विकास मंत्री रेखा आर्य जी। देर आये दुरुस्त आए"। (Translation: BJP government's child development minister Rekha Arya. Better late than never.)

In the photo, Arya can be seen writing, "Hamari bhool... kamal ka phool".(Translation: The Lotus symbol (referring to BJP) was our mistake.)

Several others also shared the similar captions along with the viral image, archives of which can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

To check the claim made in the viral video, we checked Rekha Arya's social media handles. We found the same photo posted on her official Facebook page on 10 October.

Arya had posted three photos with a caption that read, "आज #भारतीय_जनता_पार्टी उत्तराखण्ड के बूथ स्तर पर दीवार लेखन कार्यक्रम अभियान के तहत कार्यक्रम में प्रतिभाग किया।"

(Translation: Today, BJP Uttarakhand participated in a wall writing program campaign at the booth level.)

One of the photos in the series was edited to create the viral image. In the original photo, Arya was seen writing, "Ab ki baar, 60 paar". (Translation: This time, it will be more than 60 (seats).)

We also found news reports about the wall-writing campaign that was started by the party ahead of the upcoming elections.

Evidently, an edited photo of BJP Uttarakhand minister Rekha Arya was shared to claim that she had rebelled against the BJP.

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