Has Yogi Adityanath Announced Balak Nath as New Chief Minister of Rajasthan? No!

This speech of Yogi Adityanath is from 22 November and predates the results and voting day in Rajasthan.

Fact-Check: This video has been shared without the full context. Yogi Adityanath was only campaigning in favour of Baba Balaknath. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

After the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) win in the Rajasthan elections, a clip of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath inviting BJP's Mahant Balak Nath to the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is going viral.

What did Yogi Adityanath say?: He said that after taking the 'oath' in Jaipur and once the Ram Mandir opens post 22 January, Balak Nath should take Tijara's 'Ram Bhakts' to Ayodhya.

What is the claim?: Those sharing have claimed that Adityanath announced Balak Nath as the new CM of Rajasthan.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is it true?: No, this claim is misleading.

• In the original speech, Adityanath was campaigning for Balak Nath in Tijara, Rajasthan before the election, not announcing his name as the CM.

How did we find out?: With a keyword search on Google, we came across a video on YouTube posted on 22 November by a verified channel called 'Pyara Hindustan.'

• It was Adityanath's full speech and was uploaded with the title, "Yogi's huge rally in support of Baba Balaknath in Tijara, Rajasthan in the dark of the night."

• We traced the portion of the speech in the viral video and found that 12:06 minutes onwards, Yogi Adityanath can be heard speaking on similar lines.

• He said, "Your blessings in the form of vote will go to the lotus logo and to Shri Baba Balaknath. Is everyone in agreement?"

• He added, "I will say this to Baba Balaknath that after taking the oath in Jaipur and post 22 January, he should come to Ayodhya with Ram devotees of Tijara. Is everyone in agreement?"

• He, then, went on to alert the audience that campaigning will stop from 23 November.

Rajasthan elections schedule and results:

• The voting for the Rajasthan Assembly elections took place on 25 November and the results were declared on 3 December, with the BJP winning the majority with 115 seats.

• Balak Nath won from the Tijara constituency.

Here are the final results of the Rajasthan assembly elections. 

(Source: ECI/Screenshot) 

No official word on CM yet: At the time of writing this story, no names have been officially released by the BJP for the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan. However, Balak Nath is in the running to become the next CM of Rajasthan.

• Apart from Balak Nath, other contenders include former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Union minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Om Mathur and Diya Kumari.

Conclusion: Clearly, Yogi Adityanath's speech has been shared without the proper context.

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