A photo from December 2021 of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, is being shared with a false claim that the two leaders met recently.
The photo is being shared days after Shinde rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi government leading to its collapse . The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress were part of a coalition called the MVA. Shinde and 39 MLA's of Shiv Sena walked out of the government forcing Thackeray to resign.
The photo went viral after several news reports carried the same claiming Pawar met with Shinde on Tuesday at the former's residence.
FACT CHECK
We first went through CM Eknath Shinde's Twitter account and found a tweet from him saying the viral photo is old and news about him meeting with Pawar were rumours.
Shinde's tweet said, "My photo with NCP chief Sharad Pawar is currently viral. No such meeting was held. Please don't believe in these rumours."
His tweet also carried a screenshot from the NCP's official Twitter handle carrying a screenshot of the same photo tweeted on November 11, 2021 when the Shinde was part of the MVA government.
We then looked for the photo on NCP's verified handle and found the same tweeted in November 2021.
The NCP in November 2021 had shared the photo saying Shinde who was then the urban development minister met with Pawar.