Fact Check: Viral video of candidate distributing cash to voters is not from Karnataka
Viral video is being shared with the misleading claim that money was distributed to voters during the Karnataka Assembly election campaign. The video originally belongs to the Huzurabad Assembly by-election campaign held in Telangana in 2021.
- By: Abhishek Parashar
- Published: May 4, 2023 at 04:08 PM
- Updated: May 8, 2023 at 05:09 PM
New Delhi (Vishvas News): Amid the ongoing election campaigns in Karnataka, a video is being shared on social media with the claim that a candidate was seen distributing cash to voters. In the video, a woman can be seen pulling out currency notes of 2,000 denomination from an envelop bearing the election symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The viral post has claimed that this video is from Karnataka. However, Vishvas News investigation found this claim to be misleading. The video going viral is related to the 2021 Telangana bypoll.
What Is Going Viral?
Social media user ‘Gayatri Kachhawa’ shared the viral video (archive link) with the caption, “*Vote in exchange for note..Karnataka.”
Several other users have also shared the same video with the similar claim stating that it is from Karnataka.
Investigation
In the viral video, a woman can be seen taking out Rs 2000 notes from the envelope. The election symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is visible on the envelope. In news search, we could not find any such report, where such an incident has been mentioned from Karnataka.
To find out the source of the viral video, the reverse image search tool was used. We found a video bulletin uploaded a year ago on the official YouTube channel of NTV Telugu. The video posted here was found to be the longer version of the viral video. According to the information shared with the video, this incident is from Huzurabad in Telangana.
Another Twitter user ‘Manickam Tagore .Bin மாணிக்கம் தாகூர்.ப’ shared this video from his official Twitter handle on October 28, 2021, stating that it is from Huzurabad in Telangana.
Several other reports also mention distribution of money in the Huzurabad bypoll. According to an Indian Express report published on October 30, 2021, the Congress delegation, led by Randeep Singh Surjewala, demanded the Election Commission to cancel the Huzurabad Assembly by-election. The Congress had accused both the BJP and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi of distributing notes in exchange for votes in the elections.
It is clear from our investigation that the video going viral is not connected to the Karnataka Assembly election. The Election Commission had announced the election dates for the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on March 29, 2023. The election will be held in Karnataka on May 10 and the results will be out on May 13.
We contacted Hyderabad-based local TV journalist Noor Mohammad regarding the viral video. He confirmed that this video is one of the many videos that went viral during the Huzurabad Assembly by-election.
Earlier, a pre-poll data regarding the Karnataka Assembly elections went viral in the name of BBC, which we found to be fake in our investigation. Our fact check report can be read here.
The user who shared the viral video with the false claim has a following of around 300 people on Facebook. The month of April was full of political activity after the announcement of the Karnataka election and the same theme was reflected in Fact Check trends as well. In the month of April, Vishvas News published around 150 fact check reports and majority of these reports were related to political issues. One can read this special report of Vishvas News to understand the trends of mis-information on Indian social media in the month of April.
Conclusion: Viral video is being shared with the misleading claim that money was distributed to voters during the Karnataka Assembly election campaign. The video originally belongs to the Huzurabad Assembly by-election campaign held in Telangana in 2021.
- Claim Review : Viral video of candidate distributing cash to voters is from Karnataka
- Claimed By : Fb user: Gayatri Kachhawa
- Fact Check : Misleading
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