On 09 July 2025, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress jointly held an Opposition rally in Bihar, protesting the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming 2025 Assembly elections. The rally featured key leaders like Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi. According to news reports, a brief controversy arose when Purnia MP Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) and Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar were stopped from boarding an open van moments after Rahul Gandhi had climbed aboard, even though leaders like Tejashwi Yadav were earlier allowed onto the same platform (here, here).
In this context, a photo and multiple videos of Pappu Yadav are circulating on social media, claiming to show his reaction following the incident on 09 July 2025. Let’s verify the claims made in these posts in this article.
Claim: The visuals show Pappu Yadav after he was stopped from boarding an open van during the 09 July 2025 Opposition rally in Bihar.
Fact: These visuals do not show Pappu Yadav’s reaction after he was allegedly stopped from boarding an open van during the 09 July 2025 Opposition rally in Bihar. The photo is from a 2020 protest against farm laws in Patna. The first video is from October 2020, where Pappu Yadav criticised Tejashwi Yadav ahead of the Bihar elections. The second video is from September 2018, showing him crying after an alleged attack while travelling to a rally in Muzaffarpur. Hence, the claims made in these posts are MISLEADING.
Photo
This photo (here, here, and here) is being shared with the claim that Pappu Yadav was dragged on the road by security personnel during the 09 July 2025 Bihar bandh, after he attempted to board the truck carrying Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to multiple media reports from December 2020 (here, here) featuring the same photos from different angles. This confirms that the photos are old and unrelated to the 09 July 2025 incident. According to these reports, Pappu Yadav and his Jan Adhikar Party workers were protesting in Patna against the three farm laws introduced by the Centre. During a planned march towards Raj Bhavan from Zeromile in Agamkuan, Patna, the police stopped them with barricades. In the resulting chaos, police used water cannons and lathicharge to disperse the protesters, during which Pappu Yadav fell on the road.
We found that Pappu Yadav had shared the same photos on his X handle on 22 December 2020, regarding the incident. Additionally, during the Bihar Bandh event on 09 July 2025, he was seen wearing a white T-shirt and black pants, while his attire in the viral photo is different, further confirming that the photo is unrelated to the recent event.
Talking to ANI on 09 July 2025, Pappu Yadav clarified that he fell on his own while trying to board the vehicle. He also reiterated his commitment to Congress, stating that he is working based on Rahul Gandhi’s ideology.
Video 1
This video (here, here, and here) is being shared with the claim that it shows Pappu Yadav commenting against Tejashwi Yadav after being stopped from boarding an open van during the 09 July 2025 Opposition rally in Bihar.
We noticed that the viral video carries the Live Cities logo in the top right corner. Using this as a clue, we performed a Google keyword search and found the extended version of the same video, dated 16 October 2020, on the YouTube channel of Live Cities Media Private Limited. The video is titled “Bihar Elections: Pappu Yadav roared at Tejashwi, said what is he other than Lalu Yadav’s son?”. This confirms that the video is old and unrelated to the 09 July 2025 incident.
The viral portion appears at the 5:45 timestamp. This video was recorded ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections in 2020. In the video, a journalist questions Pappu Yadav about his campaign and the support for his Jan Adhikar Party. Throughout the video, Pappu Yadav can be heard making several remarks against both Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav.
Video 2
This video (here, here) is being shared with the claim that it shows Pappu Yadav crying while speaking to the media after he was stopped from boarding an open van during the 09 July 2025 Opposition rally in Bihar.
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to a news report by ABP News dated 06 September 2018, featuring the same visuals. The report is titled “Crying Pappu Yadav said he was attacked after asking his caste | ABP News Hindi”, confirming that the video is old and unrelated to the 09 July 2025 incident. The portion seen in the viral clip appears at the 17-second timestamp of the original video. According to the report, Pappu Yadav was seen crying in a car after allegedly being attacked while on his way to a rally in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
Further search led us to multiple news reports from 2018 (here, here, here, and here), which stated that Pappu Yadav was attacked by around 15 unidentified individuals while travelling from Muzaffarpur to Madhubani for a padayatra. The attack reportedly took place in the Khabra area.
Factly had previously debunked the same video when it went viral, claiming that Pappu Yadav was crying after stating he could eliminate the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in 24 hours.
To sum up, old and unrelated visuals of Pappu Yadav are falsely linked to the 09 July 2025 Opposition rally in Bihar.
