A collage of two photos showing Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with Railway porters and students at Delhi University (DU) is being circulated on social media, accompanied by the claim that the same person first appeared as a porter during an earlier meeting with Railway porters, and later as a student at Delhi University (here, here, and here). In this article, we will fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: The same person appeared as a porter during Rahul Gandhi’s earlier interaction with Railway porters, and later as a student during his recent interaction with students at Delhi University in May 2025.
Fact: Both individuals seen encircled in the viral photos are different people. The man encircled in one of the photos is Lokesh Choudhary, the current Joint Secretary of the Delhi University Students’ Union. The person encircled in the other photo is Kedar Lal Meena, a porter at New Delhi Railway Station. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the viral photos, we found that the first photo was shared on 27 May 2025 by the official X accounts of the Congress and Indian Youth Congress. According to the captions, the photo was taken during a meeting between the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, and the students of the Delhi University Students’ Union. On 22 May 2025, Rahul Gandhi met with the Delhi University Students’ Union at the North Campus of Delhi University (here, here, and here).
Further investigation revealed that the man circled in the viral photo is Lokesh Choudhary, the current Joint Secretary of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU). We also found a post by Lokesh Choudhary on X (formerly Twitter), dated 28 May 2025. In response to the viral claim, Choudhary debunked it, stating that these photos were being shared by pro-BJP social media users. Multiple fact-checking organisations reached out to him, and he confirmed that the viral claim was false and that he was not the porter shown in the other photo (here, here).
On conducting a reverse image search, we found that the second photo was taken on 01 March 2025, when Rahul Gandhi met a group of railway porters in New Delhi (here, here). These porters spoke about how they saved passengers during a stampede at New Delhi station. At least 18 people were killed and many others injured in the stampede on the night of 15 February 2025 (here). Rahul Gandhi also shared the video and photos of this meeting with the New Delhi railway station porters on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on 01 March 2025.
During our investigation, we found a news report published by ANI on 01 March 2025, which included a clear photo of the porter circled in the viral image. Upon comparing this with the photos of the individuals in the viral collage, we concluded that they are different people.
Furthermore, India Today Fact Check identified the porter whose face was circled in the viral posts as Kedar Lal Meena. When contacted, Meena confirmed to India Today Fact Check that he was the man sitting with other porters and Rahul Gandhi in the viral photo, but he was not the person seen in the DUSU photo. According to India Today Fact Check, Meena hails from Dausa in Rajasthan and has been working as a porter at the New Delhi Railway Station’s Ajmeri Gate since 2012. He also provided a recent photograph of himself to India Today.
From all this information, it is clear that the two individuals circled in the viral photos are different people.
To sum it up, the claim that the same person posed as a porter on one occasion and as a DU student on another during Rahul Gandhi’s meetings is false.
