Chennai, July 1: Top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader of Tamil Nadu, H Raja stoked a controversy on Twitter after he refuted reports which claimed the rupee had fallen to its all-time low on Thursday, valuing at Rs 69.09 against the US dollar.

After Left leader Sitaram Yechury took a jibe against the Centre over the weakening rupee, Raja struck back claiming the currency had dipped as low as Rs 74 per US dollar under the UPA regime. "Mr. Yechury don't forget the rupee touched all time low of ₹74 when Dr. MM Singh was PM (sic)," he said.

Gets Bombarded With Facts

Twitterati were quick to point out that the lowest value which the Indian currency had clocked under Manmohan Singh's tenure was Rs 68.82 against the US dollar, on August 28, 2013.

'Never went down Rs 70'

Advised to check facts before tweeting

Despite Raja being called out for the fake news, he has not deleted his tweet yet.

Raja, who holds the designation of BJP National Secretary, has been accused of spreading misinformation on earlier occasions as well. After a cache of arms was seized by the police in Rameswaram last month, Raja said it belonged to the "Church and naxalites". The charge was denied by the Tamil Nadu police which said the ammunition are 20 years old and could had been once used by the LTTE.

In March, after the BJP's victory in Tripura, Raja's Facebook page had uploaded a post which said that the statues of Periyar will meet a similar fate in Tamil Nadu as the busts and statues of Lenin met in Tripura. The remarks came in the backdrop of frenzied BJP workers bringing down the statues of Lenin across the north-eastern state after the party's landslide win.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 01, 2018 07:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).