A widely shared video features BSP leader Mayawati declaring her support for the Congress party in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections. In the viral video, Mayawati states that BJP is anti-Dalit and voices her support for the Congress, endorsing Kamalnath for the position of chief minister. This article aims to examine the credibility of the shared video.
Claim: Video shows BSP chief Mayawati declaring her support for the Congress party in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections.
Fact: This is a fabricated video created by digitally overlaying a voice that mimics Mayawati onto an unrelated video of her speaking to the media. Original video shows Mayawati criticizing both the BJP and Congress, asserting that they have been engaged in a competition to demonstrate who is a more prominent ‘Hindutvavadi’ and a devout ‘Hindu bhakt.’ Further, in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh elections, BSP did not lend her support to either the BJP or the Congress. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections concluded on 17 November 2023, while elections for Rajasthan and Telangana are scheduled for 23 and 30 November 2023, respectively. Contrary to the viral video’s claim, BSP chief Mayawati did not lend her support to the Congress party in the recent Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The video in question is digitally manipulated, involving the morphing of an old video featuring Mayawati addressing the media.
Conducting a reverse image search on the screenshots from the viral video led us to a news report featuring Mayawati addressing the media in Lucknow on 13 July 2023. The body language exhibited by Mayawati in this news report mirrors that of the viral video. A side-by-side comparison of screenshots from both videos confirms this similarity, suggesting that the viral visuals were extracted from this particular news report.
However, during this address, Mayawati criticized both the BJP and Congress, asserting that they have been engaged in a competition to demonstrate who is a more prominent ‘Hindutvavadi’ and a devout ‘Hindu bhakt.’ And her speech does not endorse the Congress party, contrary to the assertion made in the viral post. Another news report of Mayawati’s media address can be viewed here. This indicates that the viral video has been created by digitally overlaying a voice that mimics Mayawati onto earlier footage of her speaking to the media.
As far as the 2023 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections are concerned, Mayawati did not lend support to either the BJP or the Congress. In fact, news reports indicate that she commenced her campaign in Madhya Pradesh by criticising the Congress party.
It is important to highlight that after the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly results, where the Congress emerged as the largest party but fell two seats short of the majority mark of 116, BSP chief Mayawati declared her support for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. She emphasized that their common goal was to prevent the BJP from forming the government.
To sum it up, this video of Mayawati extending support to the Congress party in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh elections is fabricated
