Old video of RJD leader Sima Kushwaha crying over ticket rejection falsely shared as recent
The Election Commission of India on 06 October 2025 announced the election schedule for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. Following the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of Conduct came into force in Bihar. Polling will be held for 121 assembly seats in the first phase on 06 November 2025, while 122 assembly constituencies will go to the polls in the second phase on 11 November 2025. The counting of votes is scheduled for 14 November 2025 (here, here). The Nominations process began for the first phase on 10 October 2025 and will last till 17 October 2025.
In this context, a video (here, here, here, and here) showing Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Sima Kushwaha in tears is being widely circulated with the claim that she is reacting to her party denying her a ticket in the ongoing elections. We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Video of Sima Kushwaha in tears after she was denied an election ticket by her party, RJD for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.
Fact: The video dates back to 2020, when she was upset over being denied a ticket by the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) in that year’s Bihar assembly elections. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify the claim, we conducted a reverse image search using a few key frames from the viral video. Through this search, we found news reports (here, here, and here) from 2020 about the same video.
Back in October 2020, she reportedly posted a Facebook Live video and gave interviews explaining that she was upset after being denied a ticket by Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and feeling ignored by the party leadership. Upset over this, she resigned from the party. A short clip, which can be found from the 14:15 mark in the same video, is now being recirculated as though it were from 2025. She was part of the RLSP back in 2020 and joined Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) in July 2023. She joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) thereafter.
Additionally, we found that Sima Kushwaha provided clarification regarding the viral video on ‘X’ and YouTube. On 10 October 2025, she posted a video on her social media stating that the viral video of her crying because she didn’t get a party ticket is from 2020.
Furthermore, as of today, i.e., 10 October 2025, the RJD has reportedly (here, here, and here) released the list of 44 probable candidates for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. Sima Kushwaha’s name is not present in the list shared by the media.
To sum up, the viral video of Sima Kushwaha in tears is not a recent one; it dates back to 2020, when she was denied a ticket by the RLSP.