Fact-Check: Video of Odisha Congress MLA With Wife Goes Viral With False Claims

The politician in the video is Congress Odisha MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati and not Karnataka, as claimed.

This video is from Odisha not Karnataka. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint) 

The video of a political leader showing "inappropriate" gestures to a fellow leader is viral on the internet.

What is the claim?: Those sharing the video have claimed that the MLA is blowing a kiss towards a female colleague as a gesture of honouring and welcoming her to the party in Karnataka. The claim tried to mock Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and asked if that is what he means by 'mohabbat ki dukaan' (shop of love).

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot) 

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

What is the truth?: The video is being shared with a false spin on Karnataka Congress.

• The viral video is from Odisha.

• It shows Congress Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati and his wife Minakahi Bahinipati, at a public event.

How did we find out?: We used the InVid WeVerify Google Chrome extension to zoom into the keyframes of the video.

• After getting the keyframes, we did a reverse Google image search.

• The reverse Google image search led us to a News 18 Odia YouTube video, which had clips seen in the viral video.

• We also noticed the text in the background was Odia and not Kannada.

(Photo: Edited by The Quint)

Other Sources: We also came across a news article by LatestLy.

• The article read about the public event where the Congress MLA from Odisha indulged in public display of affection by blowing a kiss towards his wife.

The article mentioned that the MLA has been seen blowing a kiss at SN Patro, Odisha Assembly Speaker in 2019. 

(Source: LatestLY/Screenshot) 

Conclusion: The viral video with the claim that the kiss was blowed to welcome and honour the woman joining Karnataka Congress is false.

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