Did Akhilesh Yadav Say Yogi Government Will Bring Progress in Uttar Pradesh? No.

Akhilesh Yadav's speech was presented out of context and the audio was misrepresented.

A video from a speech of Former Uttar Pradesh (UP) CM and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has gone viral with a claim that he said the state can only progress if Yogi Adityanath comes to power.

The 11-second video of Yadav is from what seems to be an election campaign rally ahead of the upcoming UP state Assembly elections.

However, we found that the clipped video was edited and presented without proper context to create a false narrative. In his speech, Yadav said that the state could only progress if a "yogya" (able) government was voted into power.

CLAIM

Those sharing the viral video said in Hindi, "अखिलेश की फिसली जुबान बोले योगी सरकार बनेगी तभी खुशहाली के रास्ते पर जायेगा उत्तर प्रदेश".

[Translation: In a slip of tongue, Akhilesh said Uttar Pradesh will go on the path of prosperity if the Yogi government will be formed.]

A floating text on the video said, "Yogi sarkar hi banegi".

The same video was shared widely on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some which can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed the logo of "Headlines India" on the top right corner of the viral video. We conducted a keyword search for "Headlines India" and found its Facebook page.

After going through the videos uploaded by the page, we found Yadav's speech uploaded on 2 January.

The viral video was clipped from this longer version of Yadav's speech. The viral clip can be seen starting from 0:58 seconds.

Yadav said, "…..अगर उत्तर प्रदेश को खुशहाली के रास्ते पर ले जाना है तो योग्य सरकार बनेगी, तभी जाकर उत्तर प्रदेश खुशहाली के रास्ते पर जाएगा।"

[Translation: If Uttar Pradesh is to be taken on the path of prosperity, then a competent government will be formed, only then will Uttar Pradesh go on the path of prosperity.]

He used the word "योग्य"/yogya (which translates to competent/worthy) but users misrepresented the word as "Yogi" to create a false narrative.

We also found that this is not the first time Yadav used the word "yogya" as a wordplay. He has used it several times during his campaign rallies and several news organisations have reported on it as well.

Evidently, Akhilesh Yadav's speech was misrepresented and presented without proper context in an attempt to create a false narrative.

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