Update (09 May 2023):
With respect to the 2023 state election, Prakash Raj has been critical of the ruling BJP on several occasions. Recently he took to Twitter asking the voters to bring down BJP. Through a series of tweets, he spoke against BJP (here & here).
Published (08 May 2023):
In the wake of the upcoming general elections to the Karnataka state assembly, a video of actor Prakash Raj criticizing the Congress party is being widely shared. This 13-second clip of Prakash Raj, wherein he can be heard saying ‘Don’t waste your on Congress’ is being shared as if it’s his message to the Karnataka voters before the 2023 elections. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video message of Prakash Raj asking not to waste vote on Congress in the 2023 Karnataka elections.
Fact: This is an old video, which he released during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which he calls out on Congress party for spreading false propaganda that he is supporting the Congress in the election. He contested the 2019 election as an independent candidate and ended up in the third place. The video has nothing to do with the upcoming elections. Hence the claim made in the post is Misleading.
General elections to the Karnataka assembly are scheduled to be held on 10 May 2023 and the campaign is set to end today (08 May 2023). In this context, a video of actor Prakash Raj, criticizing the Congress party is being shared as if it is the latest video. However, it is an old video, released in 2019, during the Lok Sabha elections.
Google search with relevant keywords led us to the original and longer version of the viral shared by Prakash Raj, through a tweet. In the video released on 17 April 2019, Prakash Raj takes a jibe at the Congress party for sharing a photograph of his shaking hands and Rizwan and spreading false propaganda that he is supporting the Congress party.
It is noteworthy that Prakash Raj contested from the Bangalore central constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as an independent candidate and ended up only in the third place. P.C. Mohan from BJP won the seat over his nearest rival Rizwan Arshad of the Congress party.
Thus, this establishes that an excerpt from an old video of Prakash Raj criticizing the Congress party is edited out and linked to the current elections. Notably, Prakash Raj, a bitter critic of the BJP, has predicted a clear mandate for the Congress party in the upcoming elections.
To sum it up, an old video of actor Prakash Raj criticizing the Congress party is being shared linking it to the upcoming Karnataka elections.
