Kerala Govt Hasn't Announced Power Outage for 22 January; Viral Claim is False

PK Biju and the KSEB PRO confirmed to The Quint that the viral claims related to the Ram Mandir were false.

Fact-Check: Electricity will be supplied on 22 January, the claim is false.

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A post circulating on social media has claimed that a former Member of Lok Sabha and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader from Kerala, PK Biju allegedly 'urged' people not to switch on TV on 22 January, the day of the consecration ceremony of Ayodhya's Ram Temple.

• The claim also read that the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is 'planning' a major maintenance activity on that day, which may disrupt power supply across the state.

• Some claims also said that the former MP had asked teachers to show images of the Babri Masjid to children.

Who shared it?: This claim was covered by news channel Capital TV. You can find an archive of their coverage here.

• Similarly, OpIndia and HinduPost also published reports on this.

An archive of the claim can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

We also received a query about this claim on our WhatsApp tipline number. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is this true?: The claim is false.

• The KSEB Public Relations Officer (PRO) confirmed to The Quint that the claim about the state-wide disruption in the power supply on 22 January was false.

• We spoke to PK Biju, who said that the statement was "fabricated" and that he did not make the remarks in the claim.

How did we find out?: We checked the two claims separately.

Electricity disruption on 22 January: The Quint reached out to S Subhash, KSEB's PRO who confirmed that the claim about the electric supply disruption was "false."

• He added that there are no plans for any maintenance work that would disrupt the power supply in the state on 22 January.

K Krishnankutty, Minister for Electricity of Kerala's Statement: Taking to his official page, the minister further clarified that the claim was false on 18 January.

• The post's caption read that the claim that there would be a widespread power outage in Kerala on 22 January is false.

• The minister wrote, "Don't be deceived by false propaganda."

PK Biju's alleged statement: We ran relevant keyword searches to find if the CPM leader had made such remarks and did not find any credible reports or press releases that could verify this claim.

• However, we did find one report by a Malayalam daily, Janmabhumi, that carried a story about this on 8 January.

• To verify this, we spoke to PK Biju, who said that he did not make such remarks and the statement was "fabricated."

CPI(M) on the Ram Temple's consecration ceremony: The party's senior leader, Brinda Karat, told the press on 26 December 2023 that the CPI(M) will "not participate" in the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple.

• She added that it is not "right" to politicise religion.

Conclusion: Clearly, false claims about a state-wide power cut on 22 January in Kerala are being shared on social media. CPI(M) leader PK Biju has denied making the statements in the claim.

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