This Video is Not From the Post-Poll Violence After the West Bengal Elections

The viral video has been online since April 2026, before the 2026 West Bengal Election results were announced.

A video showing massive arson and chaos on a street is going viral on social media. The clip is being shared as footage of the aftermath of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly Election results.

What is the claim:

• Users are making various claims about the video. Some allege that it shows a public protest against the Trinamool Congress (TMC), while others claim the people in the video are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers inciting violence after the election results.

• Former Youth Congress President Srinivas BV, TMC leader Mahua Moitra, and several other accounts affiliated with the Congress and TMC shared the video, framing it as the fallout of the election results.

• Digital platform BRUT also posted the video, stating it was from the post-election period in Bengal. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee later shared BRUT's video.

(Archives of other posts making similar claims can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No. The viral video has been on the internet since April of this year. It has nothing to do with the West Bengal election results, which was declared on 4 May.

How did we find the truth?:

• When we ran a reverse search on the viral video using Google Lens, we found the same clip uploaded in an Instagram post dated 26 April 2026. The post mentioned that the video was from the Metiabruz area in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal.

• This clearly established that the video has been online since before the recent Bengal election results were announced, making the viral claim false.

• We also found a few news reports from 25 and 26 April, confirming a fire incident in a slum near the Metiabruz railway line in South 24 Parganas.

• While we could not definitively confirm if the video is from this exact incident, the timeline confirms that the clip was on the internet well before the election results were out.

Conclusion: The viral video predates then West Bengal election results making the claim false.

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