Ahead of the Telangana state assembly elections, a video of a rally by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is being shared on social media as one taking place in the state.
What are the users saying?: Those sharing the video have claimed that the 'elephant' (BSP's symbol) will "dominate" Telangana.
(Archives of similar posts can be found here and here)
What is the truth?: The BSP rally took place in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and not Telangana.
Additionally, news reports mentioned that it was a peaceful march from Ambedkar Park to Raj Bhawan on the occasion of World Tribal Day to raise voices against atrocities against Dalits and tribals.
How did we find out?: We conducted a Google reverse image search and came across a similar video on Facebook. It was posted by one Shubham Singh Bouddh whose bio read, "Assembly President Timarni BSP, District Harda MP."
The video was uploaded on 17 September with the caption to prepare for victory and hashtags such as #BSP, #Bhopal, #AkashAnand (national coordinator of BSP and party supremo Mayawati's nephew), etcetera.
With a relevant keyword search, we came across news reports from August by Dainik Bhaskar and Free Press Journal that noted a peaceful march from Ambedkar Maidan to Raj Bhawan was conducted on the occasion of World Tribal Day in Bhopal.
They reported that the rally was stopped by the Bhopal police ahead of reaching the Raj Bhawan.
Further, we matched a building in the viral video with Google Maps street view. We viewed the route between Ambedkar Maidan and Raj Bhawan and came across similarities.
Telangana State Assembly Elections 2023: In a poll-bound Telangana, parties have been campaigning in full swing including the BSP, which is fighting against the KCR-led Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
BSP took out a rally in Chinthalamanepalli in Telangana on 25 September and questioned the authorities over several issues including corruption within the (BRS).
Apart from BSP, the Congress Party, on 18 September, kick-started its campaign for Telangana. Former Congress President and senior leader, Sonia Gandhi launched a six guarantee scheme and sent off several teams into the 119 constituencies to campaign.
BRS celebrated National Integration Day on 17 September to honour the merger of Hyderabad and India while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrated the National Liberation Day on the same day.
Conclusion: Clearly, this video of the BSP Rally is not from Telangana but from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
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