On November 27, several people tweeted a picture of Uddhav Thackeray supposedly paying tribute to Sonia Gandh with the text “Welcome to Milawati Party. Finally, now onwards we r all Secular.#रामसेना_से_सोनियासेना (Ramsena to Soniasena) #ShivSenaCheatsMaharashtra #shivsenacheatsbalasaheb.”

In the picture, Uddhav Thackerey can be seen bowing down to a portrait and a bust of Sonia Gandhi.

Over the last few hours, Alt New has received several requests to fact-check this image on social media.

PHOTOSHOPPED

Alt News visited the official Twitter account of the Office of Uddhav Thackeray and found the original photo posted on November 26. The photo was tweeted with the text “महाविकास आघाडीच्या बैठकीत मुख्यमंत्री म्हणून शिवसेना पक्षप्रमुख मा. श्री. उद्धव साहेब ठाकरे यांच्या नावाची घोषणा झाल्यानंतर त्यांनी मातोश्री निवासस्थानी वंदनीय हिंदुहृदयसम्राट शिवसेनाप्रमुख मा. श्री. बाळासाहेब ठाकरे यांच्या स्मृतीला वंदन केले. (At Mahavikas Aghadi’s, after the declaration that Udhav Thakre, the Shiv Sena party leader, will be the CM, he greeted Balasaheb Thakre, who is a mother figure, is king of hindutvavadis and is the party chairman of Shivsena.)”

महाविकास आघाडीच्या बैठकीत मुख्यमंत्री म्हणून शिवसेना पक्षप्रमुख मा. श्री. उद्धव साहेब ठाकरे यांच्या नावाची घोषणा झाल्यानंतर त्यांनी मातोश्री निवासस्थानी वंदनीय हिंदुहृदयसम्राट शिवसेनाप्रमुख मा. श्री. बाळासाहेब ठाकरे यांच्या स्मृतीला वंदन केले. pic.twitter.com/cfpIHKyaT1

— Office of Uddhav Thackeray (@OfficeofUT) November 26, 2019

Since then several media outlets have used this image including The Hindu.

In the viral image, Shiv Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray’s portrait and bust have been photoshopped with that of Sonia Gandhi.

[This article has been updated with information about the bust of late Balasaheb Thackeray photoshopped with that of Sonia Gandhi.]