Joke posts that Indian politician Uddhav Thackeray 'watched his resignation on TV' misleads

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After Indian politician Uddhav Thackeray was forced to quit as chief minister of Maharashtra state, an image circulated on social media that appeared to show him watching news of his resignation on television. Many users shared the image to make fun of Thackeray but some appeared to believe it was genuine. The image has been doctored; the original photo was taken in 2020 and shows Thackeray on a call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

"Why does his pain see no end?" reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on July 1. 

The post appears to mock Uddhav Thackeray, who was forced to resign as chief minister of India's western Maharashtra state after several members of his party Shiv Sena rebelled against his leadership.

Shiv Sena formed a government in Maharashtra in 2019 in alliance with the opposition Indian National Congress and the NCP.

Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who was among the party members who ousted Thackeray, was sworn in as the new chief minister of Maharashtra on June 29.

The picture appears to show Thackeray watching a broadcast about his resignation by Republic TV -- a channel that has previously published unfavourable reports about him.

Text on the screen reads "LIVE & BREAKING" and "Uddhav goes, Sena CM stays."

A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post taken on July 1, 2022

The image was shared in similar posts here and here on Facebook; and here on Instagram.

Comments to the posts suggest some social media users believed the photo was genuine.

"Look at the channel he is watching!" wrote one.

"But he is still watching Republic," said another.

Altered image

A reverse search found the original image in a tweet by the Times of India newspaper from April 27, 2020.

It shows Thackery in a video conference with Indian Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The tweet reads: "#Maharashtra CM #UddhavThackeray attends video conference meeting of Chief Ministers with PM @narendramodi and Union Home Minister @AmitShah, on #COVID19 situation."

Below is a comparison of the doctored image (left) with the photo posted by Times of India (right):

Thackeray's official Twitter account also posted the photo here.

Various Indian fact-checking organisations have debunked the altered photo, including here and here.

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