Was Shashi Tharoor Distributing Money To A Crowd? A FactCheck

Photos of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor holding cash during his visit to the famed Connemara market in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala last week are being shared online with a false claim that he was bribing his constituents to attend the gathering.

The images were shared by Twitter user Shivam Sharma on April 1, 2019. The text of Sharma's tweet roughly translates to, "a crowd bought by money. Shashi Tharoor makes payments. This is the truth of Congress".

(Translated from Hindi text - "पैसों से बुलाई भीड़ को @ShashiTharoor पेमेंट देते हुए ये है कांग्रेस का सच #FirEkBarModiSarkar,")

Click here to view the tweet, and here for an archive.

The tweet has gained around 279 retweets and 402 likes at the time of writing this article.

Several Twitter users reacted by tagging the Election Commission Of India (ECI) to take action against Tharoor who is a Member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerela and is seeking to get re-elected from there in the imminent Lok Sabha election.

FACT-CHECK

Shashi Tharoor on March 30, 2019, had visited the Connemara market in Thiruvananthapuram as part of his election campaign.

Following his visit, Tharoor had tweeted the same photos which are now being shared with a misleading context and said that the fisherwomen of Puthiyathura had pooled their earnings and handed him a donation towards his election deposit.