YouTuber held in ‘fake news’ case joins BJP
Bihar YouTuber Tripurari Kumar Tiwari alias Manish Kashyap, who was arrested last year for allegedly circulating fake news on Bihari migrants being attacked in Tamil Nadu, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi on Thursday in the presence of BJP MP Manoj Tiwari. He later met BJP president J.P. Nadda along with his mother.
Mr. Kashyap, 34, was in the eye of the storm last year after his YouTube videos allegedly claimed that migrants were being targeted in Tamil Nadu. He was arrested in Bihar and sent to Tamil Nadu to face charges led the local police. Many labourers had started returning to Bihar leaving their work in the southern State. The YouTuber had to spend nearly nine months in jail.
Mr. Kashyap had earlier announced about contesting the Lok Sabha election from West Champaran seat as an Independent, pitting him against sitting BJP MP and its candidate for the seat, Sanjay Jaiswal. His induction in the party ensures he is out of poll fray.
Mr. Kashyap credited
Mr. Tiwari for his induction. The incumbent MP and BJP’s candidate for the North East Delhi seat had visited the YouTuber’s village Dumri Mahanwa in West Champaran in January and met him after he was granted conditional bail in December 2023.
The YouTuber is no stranger to controversies. An FIR was led against him in 2019 for inciting vandalism after a statue of King Edward VII on the premises of Maharani Janki Kunwar Hospital in West Champaran was damaged. He was also arrested the same year in connection with an attack on Kashmiri shopkeepers in Patna after the Pulwama terror attack.
Mr. Kashyap had also unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election from Chanpatia as an Independent in 2020.