Congress veteran leader A.K. Antony’s elder son, Anil Antony, is contesting as a BJP MP candidate from Kerala. In this context, a video (here, here, here, & here) featuring a person discussing Prime Minister Modi’s achievements since 2014 is circulating widely across social media platforms. The claim accompanying the video suggests that the individual in the video is the son of senior Congress leader A.K. Antony. In this article, let’s fact-check the assertion made in the post.
Claim: Video showing senior Congress leader A.K. Antony’s son discussing Prime Minister Modi’s achievements since 2014.
Fact: The individual praising PM Modi in the viral video is Anoop Antony, a BJP leader from Kerala. He is not related to A.K. Antony. Veteran Congress veteran leader A.K. Antony has two sons, namely Anil Antony and Ajith Antony. In April 2023, the elder son of A.K. Antony, Anil Antony, joined the BJP and is now contesting the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat in Kerala as a BJP candidate. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon observing the viral video, we noticed Anoop Antony’s watermark on it. Taking this as a cue, we conducted a keyword search on the internet, which led us to a report by the ‘Indian Express’ dated 06 April 2021, featuring the individual in the viral video. According to this report, the person in the viral video is Anoop Antony Joseph, the national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), who contested from the Ambalappuzha Assembly constituency in the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections.
To find more details about Anoop Antony, we verified his 2021 Assembly election affidavit on the Election Commission of India website. According to this affidavit, Anoop Antony’s father is Thomas Joseph. From this information, it becomes evident that the person in the viral video is not the son of A.K. Antony.
During this search, we found that A.K. Antony has two sons, namely Anil Antony and Ajith Antony. In April 2023, the elder son of A.K. Antony, Anil Antony, joined the BJP and is now contesting from the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat in Kerala as a BJP candidate. Here, you can see a picture of A.K. Antony along with his two sons.
To sum up, the man in the viral video is not the son of Congress leader A.K. Antony; he is Anoop Antony, a BJP leader from Kerala.
