BJP MLA Upadhayay Didn't Condemn Beef Ban Because He Doesn't Exist

CLAIM

A video of a man is being shared with the claim that 'BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay' is condemning the beef ban imposed by the government.

In the 02:18 minute long video, the man is seen critiquing the BJP government for its beef ban and goes on to list leading Hindu beef exporters. He also takes on the RSS and asks why do they target Muslims and Dalits.

The video, which has over 1,37,000 views, has been shared with a caption, "B.J.P विधायक अनिल उपाध्याय की इस बयान पर क्या कहेंगे RSS वाले. इन video को इतना वायरल करो की ये पूरा हिन्दुस्तान देख सके" [Translation: What does RSS have to say about this BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay's statement? Make this video viral so that the entire nation can see."]

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The claim that the man in the video is "BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay" is false. The Quint has debunked several false claims in the past that have been attributed to Upadhyay, be it those claiming that he is a BJP MLA or a Congress MLA.

Secondly, the man in this video is a Kannada actor whose screen name is Sathyajith, and the real name is Syed Nizammudin.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On fragmenting the video into several keyframes and then conducting a reverse image search, we found a video which was uploaded on Sathyajith's YouTube channel. The viral clip has been extracted from a 20-minute-long election speech which he made ahead of the Assembly elections in Karnataka in 2018.

The original video features Congress logo and images of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

WHO IS ANIL UPADHYAY?

The Quint checked for Anil Upadhyay on MyNeta, no information related to such a person was found. Three Anil Upadhyays appeared in the search. Of these, two are independent and the third belongs to BSP.

This video is not the first purporting to show Anil Upadhyay as an MLA. Several pieces of misinformation and fake news have been shared using the name of the fictional MLA Anil Upadhyay. While the some of them claimed Upadhyay was a BJP MLA, the rest claimed he was with Congress.

The Quint has previously debunked fake posts that have been shared using the name of the fictitious politician.

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