No, Mamata Banerjee Did Not Fake Her Injury; Viral Pic Is Flipped

A set of two images showing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee lying on a hospital bed and sitting on a wheelchair respectively, is viral with claims that the Trinamool Congress leader faked a leg injury ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Netizens are falsely claiming that while Banerjee was photographed with a left leg injury in the hospital, she can be seen leaving the hospital premises wearing a plaster cast on her right leg. BOOM found that the image where Banerjee is on a wheelchair has been horizontally flipped changing the orientation of the photo. In the original, she can be seen with a left leg injury.

Both the images are viral with the caption, "In two days bandage dressing changed from left to right leg." Netizens have also taken a dig at Banerjee for misleading voters by faking the injury.

The collage is also viral on Twitter.

Banerjee was injured on her left leg while campaigning in Nandigram, West Bengal on March 11. She was rushed to Kolkata's SSKM hospital soon after. Banerjee initially alleged that a group of four to five men pushed her while she was out of her vehicle to greet people. The door was slammed and shut on her leg, injuring her. According to report by poll observers Ajay Nayak and Vivek Dubey the injury was an accident and not a planned attack.

Post the injury several unrelated images were viral with claims that the chief minister faked her injury. Read BOOM's debunk here, here and here.

Fact Check

We cropped the image and ran a reverse image search on both the photographs. The image where Banerjee can be seen on a wheelchair was shared in an article by Outlook which reported about Banerjee's discharge from SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, post her treatment "Mamata Banerjee Discharged From The Hospital; Doctors Found Her Recovery 'Satisfactory'. In the original image, Banerjee's left leg can be seen with a plaster cast.

The same was tweeted by Economic Times journalist Aman Sharma.

Footage of Banerjee coming out from the hospital was also shared in an India Today and Hindustan Times bulletin. In the footage, Banerjee can be seen greeting the press and her followers as she leaves the hospital with other TMC leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Firhad Hakim among others.

Below is a comparison of the same.

The image where Banerjee can be seen on the hospital bed was tweeted by MP Abhishek Banerjee on March 12.