This viral video shows TDP followers protesting over the selection of the Guntakal MLA candidate in March 2024
The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were announced on 04 June 2024. The BJP managed to win only 240 seats, falling short of a majority on its own, thus making it dependent on alliance partners to secure the 272 seats required to form the government. On 05 June 2024, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu clarified that they intend to remain with the NDA by attending the NDA meeting and providing written support to the NDA. In this context, a video (here, here, & here) showing a few people hitting the portrait of Chandrababu Naidu with footwear and throwing it into the fire is being widely circulated across social media platforms with the claim that people of Andhra Pradesh are upset with Chandrababu’s decision to support Narendra Modi and are burning photos of Chandrababu Naidu. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals showing people of Andhra Pradesh burning a portrait of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for supporting Narendra Modi to form the government.
Fact: This viral video shows visuals of TDP followers protesting over the selection of the Guntakal MLA candidate in March 2024. The TDP announced Gummanur Jayaram as the MLA candidate for Guntakal. Jitender Goud, who had been hoping for the MLA ticket, was unhappy with this decision. His followers expressed their anger by attacking the TDP office in Guntakal, destroying furniture, and burning banners and photos of Chandrababu Naidu. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
There are no credible reports about people of Andhra Pradesh protesting against TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for supporting Narendra Modi to form the government.
To gather more information about this viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using key frames from the video. This search led us to a news report video (archived link) featuring similar visuals, uploaded on 30 March 2024, on the official YouTube channel of the Telugu news channel NTV with the title: “Anantapur TDP Leaders Protest Over Final List.” According to this media report, the TDP announced Gummanur Jayaram as the MLA candidate for Guntakal. Jitender Goud, who had been hoping for the MLA ticket was not able to accept this decision. Jitender Goud’s followers expressed their anger by attacking the TDP Guntakal office, destroying furniture and windows, and burning banners and photos of Chandrababu Naidu. Additional news reports regarding this protest can be seen here, here, and here. A similar incident of vandalism by TDP cadre was also reported in Anantapur at that time, according to news reports.
Upon comparing the viral video with the news video, it becomes evident that the visuals in the viral video show Guntakal TDP leaders protesting against the selection of the MLA candidate for the Guntakal constituency in March 2024, before the 2024 Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Below is a comparison of the viral video with the news video.
To sum up, this viral video shows TDP followers protesting over the selection of the Guntakal candidate in March 2024.