The national in-charge of social media for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha Priti Gandhi tweeted an ABP News broadcast from 2019 Lok Sabha elections to claim that people attending Yadav’s rally were actually going to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gandhi’s tweet comes as the second phase of Bihar Assembly elections is scheduled to be held on 3 November.
CLAIM
In her tweet, Gandhi wrote, “Especially for those who have been going ga-ga about the crowds at @yadavtejashwi's rallies in Bihar!! That crowd is present there only for their entertainment...They are extremely clear that their vote is reserved only for PM @narendramodi!! JAI HO #BiharWithNDA.”
Other Twitter and Facebook users also posted the same clip with similar captions. During the time of publication, Gandhi video had over 1,000 likes and 466 retweets.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
At first glance, one can note that this rally cannot be a recent one because no one in the crowd, that appears in the frame, is seen wearing a mask. Upon looking closely at the top left corner of the video, we can see the date as 23 May and a line in Hindi which reads, “23 मई को सबसे तेज़ नतीजे सिर्फ़ ABP न्यूज़ पर |” (Translation: On 23 May, get the fastest on ABP News.)
We knew it could not be May of 2020 because large gatherings weren’t allowed following the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines.
We did a keyword search for “Tejashwi Yadav’s rallies and ABP news” and found a video of the rally that was held in Champaran, Bihar. The YouTube video was uploaded by the ABP News Network on 9 May 2019, ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
The video shared by Gandhi was clipped from this 15 minutes 31 seconds video. The clipped portion of the video can be seen from 4:25.
Evidently, an old video from 2019 Lok Sabha elections was shared as that of the ongoing 2020 Bihar elections to claim that people attending Tejashwi Yadav’s rallies were going to vote for PM Modi.
We, at WebQoof, have debunked several other false or misleading claims about the Bihar elections that you can read here.
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