Fake news peddler Saket Gokhale joined the Mamata Banerjee-led ‘Aggressive’ Trinamool Congress in New Delhi on Thursday. He received a warm welcome from TMC MPs Saugata Roy and Derek O’Brien and senior leader Yashwant Sinha, who had defected to the TMC from the BJP earlier this year after a prolonged period of dissent against the party.
Gokhale said, “the TMC is the second-largest opposition party in Parliament, and it has been my obvious choice. If you look at all the national parties, the TMC takes an aggressive stand. The way the chief minister of West Bengal (Banerjee) has been fighting on the front foot, that is what I am looking for.
Later, in a tweet, he stressed the need for the Opposition to unite, saying, “the battle for me remains what it always has been. I will continue to do what I do with greater strength. The need for Opposition unity today is greater than it has ever been.
“Everyone that is fighting the monster of the BJP’s fascism is forever a friend and ally of mine,” Gokhale said.
Honored to join @AITCofficial under the leadership of the ever fearless @MamataOfficial & @abhishekaitc.
The fight to safeguard our democracy & its institutions needs all hands on deck. I hope to contribute in the best way I can.
Thanks for the warm welcome 😊#KhelaHobe https://t.co/M05bVeSipE
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) August 12, 2021
Saket Gokhale had been supporting the Congress party for the past few years. Gokhale even used to cite Rahul Gandhi as his ‘inspiration’. Gokhale joining TMC could be considered a massive blow to Rahul Gandhi and the Congress as they could see their ship sinking further and no longer remaining the largest opposition in the country because even liabilities like Gokhale are abandoning ship.
Last year, Gokhale had claimed to have collected over Rs 22 lakhs to campaign against the ‘BJP hate machine’ and launched a ‘campaign to take down hate-speech mongers’ on social media. Although he claimed that he intends to use the funds collected to pay for the expenses of people working for his campaign, not all were amused.
An AAP supporter named Amit Behere had accused Gokhale of wasting money by filing RTIs, which have had absolutely “zero return on investment”. He had alleged that the donations to Gokhale had obtained no results for the common public but have benefitted only Gokhale himself.
And if they haven't achieved anything I don't just want him to return not just my money, which he has, but EVERYBODY's money that he has taken.
I want an audit of every penny of the 10s of lakhs of rupees he has *stolen* from trusting Indians like me.
— Amit Behere (@_amitbehere) February 24, 2021
Back in July, Gokhale brought an embarrassment to the entire leftist clan when he had raised questions on the assets of former diplomat Lakshmi Puri and her husband Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in a series of tweets last month. He sought an inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate into their assets.
Gokhale was reprimanded for spreading lies and fake news and the court directed him to delete all tweets immediately as the law does not permit any person aggrieved by retired public servants’ or officers’ declaration of assets to publish allegations without seeking clarification from the person or approaching authorities. Gokhale failed miserably in his attempt to ruin the Puri’s reputation through false and baseless accusations.
Read more: Saket Gokhale, the fake news activist, has been dealt a severe blow by the Delhi High Court
Saket Gokhale has broadcasted, propagated, and promoted baseless and fake news on numerous grounds via his Twitter account, his propaganda against the Modi government is what united him with Mamata Banerjee-led TMC. It will be interesting to watch how things will turn out as Gokhale’s reason for this sensational transfer to the aggressive TMC could be credited to the fact that the Congress party is broke and their electoral fortunes refuse to recover.