This video of Rahul Gandhi addressing a crowd from the rooftop of a bus is not from the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar
On 17 August 2025, Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, launched the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Sasaram, Bihar, a 16-day march covering over 1,300 km across more than 20 districts of the state. The march was launched against the backdrop of the Congress’s accusations of “vote chori” against the ECI and the INDIA Bloc’s opposition to the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. The campaign will conclude with a rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on 01 September 2025 (here, here, and here).
Amid this, a video (here, here, and here) showing Rahul Gandhi addressing a large crowd from the rooftop of a bus is being widely shared across social media platforms, with claims that it shows recent visuals from his ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar. In this article, we fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video shows Rahul Gandhi addressing a gathering from the rooftop of a bus during the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar in August 2025.
Fact: This viral video is not from the ongoing ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar. It shows Rahul Gandhi addressing university students from the rooftop of a bus in January 2024 during his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ at the Meghalaya–Assam border. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On carefully reviewing the viral video, we heard Rahul Gandhi mentioning ‘Assam’ and ‘university students’ while addressing the gathering. At no point does he refer to ‘vote chori’ (electoral fraud) or the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in Bihar.
To verify the details of the viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the clip. This search led us to the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel named ‘Timeline’ on 23 January 2024, titled “Rahul Gandhi Addresses Students Outside USTM University After Authorities Deny Him Entry”. From this, we can confirm that the viral video is not linked to the ongoing ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar.
For further details, we conducted a relevant keyword search on Google and found multiple news reports (here, here, here, and here) carrying visuals of Rahul Gandhi’s address from a different angle. According to these reports, Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to interact with students, civil society members, and Congress Party leaders at the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM), in Ri Bhoi district, which borders Assam, on 23 January 2024 during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. However, the event was later cancelled. The Congress Party alleged that, following the intervention of Home Minister Amit Shah, Gandhi was prevented from interacting with students during his visit to USTM. He subsequently addressed a spontaneous gathering of students outside the university at the Assam–Meghalaya border from atop his bus, after his permission to interact with students inside the campus had allegedly been revoked. Rahul Gandhi’s official YouTube channel also live-streamed his speech outside USTM from atop the bus on 23 January 2024, with the caption: “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra | Jorabat to Guwahati | Meghalaya to Assam.”
Additionally, we geolocated the location seen in the viral video using Google Maps and found that it was filmed in front of an Indian Oil petrol pump on Baridua Road, Marwet, Khanapara, Byrnihat, Ri Bhoi, Meghalaya – 793101. This confirms that the video shows Rahul Gandhi addressing a gathering at the Meghalaya–Assam border on 23 January 2024. Related videos of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ can be viewed here.
To sum it up, this viral video shows Rahul Gandhi addressing university students from the rooftop of a bus in January 2024 during his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ at the Meghalaya–Assam border.