A 2022 video of Dimple Yadav taking a holy bath in the Ganga at Haridwar is falsely linked to the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela
Amid the ongoing 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, a video of Samajwadi Party leader and Member of Parliament Dimple Yadav taking a dip in a river is going viral on social media, claiming that she attended the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela and took a holy bath (here, here, and here). Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Samajwadi Party leader Dimple Yadav taking a holy dip at the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
Fact: This viral video is not related to the ongoing 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela and actually dates back to October 2022. It shows Dimple Yadav taking a holy bath in the river Ganga at Haridwar during the immersion of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ashes on 17 October 2022. As of 30 January 2024, and at the time of publishing this article, there are no reports of Dimple Yadav participating in the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To verify the details of this viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video. This search led us to the same video shared on YouTube by several social media users in 2024 (here, here). This confirms that the video is not related to the ongoing 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
Further investigation led us to a video featuring similar visuals, uploaded on a YouTube channel named ‘The HFF News’ on 18 October 2022, with the title: “Mulayam in the lap of Ganga: Akhilesh immersed the ashes with moist eyes” (translated from Hindi to English). According to the video’s description, it shows Dimple Yadav taking a bath in the Ganga at Haridwar during the immersion of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ashes.
Additionally, we have also found a video containing similar visuals uploaded on the official YouTube channel of ‘News18 UP Uttarakhand’ on 17 October 2022, with the title “Mulayam Singh Asthi Visarjan: Akhilesh Yadav took a dip in Ganga, prayed for the salvation of Netaji”. The video’s description states Dimple Yadav along with other family members taking a bath in the Ganga at Haridwar during the immersion of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ashes on 17 October 2022. Other news reports about Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav participating in Mulayam Singh’s ashes immersion (Asthi Visarjan) in Haridwar can be seen here, here, here and here.
Based on this information, it is clear that the viral video shows Dimple Yadav taking a holy bath in the river Ganga at Haridwar, Uttarakhand, in October 2022. A comparison of the viral video and the 2022 news report videos can be seen below.
Additionally, as of 30 January 2024, and at the time of publishing this article, there are no reports of Dimple Yadav participating in the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. We also checked her social media accounts (here, here, here) and found no information regarding her participation in the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela.
To sum up, this viral video is unrelated to the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela. It shows Dimple Yadav taking a holy bath in the river Ganga at Haridwar during the immersion of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ashes on 17 October 2022.