Gayeshwar Chandra Roy Not the Only Hindu Candidate Elected in 13th Parliamentary Election
Recently, a claim has been circulated in some Indian media outlets that BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy is the only Hindu candidate elected in the 13th National Parliamentary Election.
Reports broadcast in Indian media with such claims: Firstpost, Republic World (YouTube), Financial Express.
See the post circulated on the Facebook page of an Indian media outlet with such a claim here (Archive).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation reveals that senior BNP leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy is not the only Hindu candidate elected in the 13th National Parliamentary Election. In fact, his co-father-in-law, Nitai Roy Chowdhury, has also been elected as a Member of Parliament and is a member of the Hindu community. Moreover, at least two other minority candidates have also won in the election.
Investigating this matter, a report published on February 13 on the website of the national daily Prothom Alo was found. The report stated that four candidates from religious and ethnic minority communities won the 13th National Parliamentary Election. All of them are BNP-nominated candidates. BNP leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy won from the Dhaka-3 constituency. BNP leader Nitai Roy Chowdhury won the Magura-2 constituency. He is a Vice Chairman of BNP. He is Gayeshwar Chandra Roy’s co-father-in-law. Saching Prue won from Bandarban with the sheaf of paddy symbols. Dipen Dewan won the election with BNP’s nomination in the Rangamati constituency.
The victory of the aforementioned followers of the Hindu religion, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Nitai Chandra Roy, is also known from multiple other media sources.
It is worth noting that confirmed information regarding the religious identity of Dipen Dewan was not found among these. The international news media ‘Al Jazeera’ stated that Dipen Dewan is a Chakma Buddhist leader and Nitai Roy Chowdhury is a Hindu leader. Exactly what religion another minority, Saching Prue, follows could not be fully confirmed either.
That is, at least two individuals following the Hindu religion won in the 13th National Parliamentary Election. Gayeshwar Chandra Roy is not the only Hindu candidate elected.
Therefore, the claim that Gayeshwar Chandra Roy is the only Hindu candidate elected in the 13th National Parliamentary Election is misleading.