Rumour

On Sunday, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav tweeted out saying that the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Chouhan (BJP) is showing his support for RJD by carrying a lantern during a march. Thus apparently contradicting Modi’s statement that the ‘days of lantern’ symbol's party rule is over and also hitting out at Nitish Kumar who is the party leader of Janata Dal party which is currently a part of BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

This is what was tweeted by Yadav attaching a picture of former CM Shivraj Chouhan carrying a lantern.

The tweet can be roughly translated to “Shri Narendra Modiji came to Bihar and said that the lantern is gone. In the era of missiles, the uncle with arrow says that the era of 'lantern' has gone. But, former CM of Madhya Pradesh is showing those two that lantern is still lit. He said that the lantern coalition will win with a huge majority”.

Our Investigation

This claim made by Tejashwi Yadav is completely false. Let us look at this issue in a procedural manner. These events of calling out each other started when PM Narendra Modi in an election rally said that "These lantern wallahs too could have brought electricity to the homes of the people while they were in power. But they were busy lighting up their own clan. Somebody was building a farmhouse, somebody was constructing a mall, somebody was making money through railway tenders" referring to the IRCTC scam. He also appreciated Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi for improving the electricity situation in Bihar. This led to this particular tweet from Yadav. A detailed article about the event can be read here.

However, Yadav’s claims of Chouhan supporting ‘lantern’ is completely false because Chouhan was apparently involved in the ‘lantern march’ aimed at Kamal Nath government and the Congress leader Digvijaya Singh for the shortage in electricity faced in Bhopal. This was covered by quite a number of news agencies including ANI and Republic World who have published a descriptive article of the situation and its background. ANI had also tweeted about the incident and thus making a lot of social media users aware of the actual situation.

ANI's tweet reads:

Former Madhya Pradesh CM and BJP leader, Shivraj Singh Chouhan holds a 'lalten (oil lantern) march' in Bhopal.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP: Ever since Congress has come, electricity has gone. Digvijaya had turned MP into a state of darkness & that era is coming back. 'Lalten' is the symbol of the era of darkness, that is why we're doing this march to raise awareness among public

Fact

Tejashwi Yadav falsely claimed that former CM of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Chouhan supported his party by participating in Lalten march. In reality, he organised the Lalten march as a protest against the Congress government to highlight the shortage of electricity in Bhopal.