Update (07 June 2024):
A video (here, here, and here) of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu with Karnataka State Congress President, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar at an airport is being widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that the two leaders recently met to discuss TDP joining the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. Through this article, let’s verify the authenticity of the video.
Contrary to the claim, we found that this video is old and dates back to December 2023. We performed a reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video that led us to an extended version of the video on a YouTube channel named Mango News. This video was published on 29 December 2023, with the title: “DK Shivakumar Meets Chandrababu At Bengaluru Airport | AP Elections 2024 | TDP | Mango News.”

We then conducted a relevant keyword search to learn more about this incident and found several news reports from December 2023 about the meeting between the two leaders. According to a report by The New Indian Express, on 29 December 2023, Chandrababu Naidu was on his way to his home constituency in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, and had landed at Bengaluru’s HAL airport. Shivakumar was on his way to the Congress Foundation Day celebrations in Delhi when the two met.

According to an NDTV report, TDP General Secretary Nara Lokesh clarified that the meeting was coincidental and did not imply that their party would join the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. Additional news reports about Chandrababu Naidu meeting D.K. Shivakumar at Bengaluru airport in December 2023 can be seen here and here.
Published (06 June 2024):
The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were announced on 04 June 2024. The BJP-led NDA coalition secured 293 out of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats. However, the BJP suffered a significant setback, falling short of a majority on its own with only 240 seats, making it dependent on alliance partners to secure the 272 seats required to form the government. Other major parties in the NDA coalition are the TDP, which won 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh, and the JD(U), which won 12 seats in Bihar. The NDA can form the government only if its alliance partners, JD(U) and TDP, remain supportive.
In this context, several photos (here, here, here, & here) of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu with various I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders are being widely shared across social media platforms, claiming that Chandrababu Naidu recently met with I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav to discuss joining the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Amid the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, Chandrababu Naidu recently met with I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders to discuss joining their alliance.
Fact: At the time of writing this fact-check, there are no credible reports about Chandrababu Naidu meeting with I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav to discuss joining their alliance recently after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. Furthermore, Chandrababu affirmed his party’s commitment to stand with the NDA and participated in the NDA meeting on 05 June 2024. These viral photos are old and date back to the year 2019, when Chandrababu Naidu met several opposition leaders to form an anti-Modi front for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
As of the publication of this article, there are no credible reports about Chandrababu Naidu meeting with I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav to discuss joining their alliance recently. However, some media outlets have reported that a member of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, is likely to meet TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar (here & here) (archived links here & here). Nevertheless, no such meeting has taken place up to the time of publishing this article, nor is there any official confirmation of the same. We have also verified the social media handles (here, here & here) of TDP and Chandrababu Naidu; we didn’t come across any posts about Chandrababu meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.
On 05 June 2024, during a morning press conference, TDP Chief Chandrababu stated, “I am experienced and I have seen several political changes in this country. We are in NDA, I’m going to the NDA meeting. In due course of time, we will report it.”(here & here). Later in the day, Chandrababu Naidu participated in the meeting of NDA alliance parties held at Prime Minister Modi’s residence in Delhi. TDP’s official Facebook page has shared related videos and photos of this NDA meeting attended by its chief Chandrababu Naidu (here & here).
Photo-1:
To verify the authenticity and gather information about the viral images, we conducted a Google reverse image search. The search for the first viral photo led us to a news report published by NDTV (archived link) on 18 May 2019, featuring the same photo. According to this report, Chandrababu Naidu met with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati in Lucknow on 18 May 2019, as part of an effort to establish an anti-Modi front during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The same photo was also shared by Akhilesh Yadav on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on 18 May 2019, with the caption: “It is a pleasure to welcome Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri N Chandrababu Naidu Ji to Lucknow.” Additional news reports about this meeting between Akhilesh Yadav and Chandrababu Naidu during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections can be found here, here, and here.
Photo-2:
The Google reverse image search of the viral photo led us to an X(Twitter) post by ANI on 08 January 2019. The post featured the same viral photo with the caption: “Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu meets Congress President Rahul Gandhi”.
To gather more information about this meeting, we conducted a relevant keyword search, which led us to several news reports published in January 2019 (here, here, and here) featuring similar photos. According to these reports, on 08 January 2019, Chandrababu Naidu met Rahul Gandhi to discuss the formation of an anti-Modi front for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

To sum up, old photos are being shared falsely claiming that TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu recently met with I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders amid the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.