A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the recent visuals of Samajwadi Party supporters inciting violence in Etawah after the UP Elections results. This video shows a mob marching in a rally with armed sticks. The Election Commission announced the UP Assembly Elections results on 10 March 2022. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Claim: Video of Samajwadi Party supporters inciting violence in Etawah after the UP Election results of 2022.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows an old incident that took place at Dubulia block in Basti district (Uttar Pradesh). In July 2021, while filing the nomination for the post of Dubulia Block Chief, ruckus and violence broke out between Samajwadi Party and BJP supporters. The video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the 2022 UP Elections. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, many videos with similar visuals were found posted on social media at least since July 2021. They can be seen here and here. These social media users mentioned that the video is from the Dubulia block in Basti district (Uttar Pradesh). When we searched with relevant keywords, the same video was found tweeted by the Samajwadi Party leader Rajesh Yadav on 09 July 2021. Rajesh Yadav tweeted it as the visuals of thousands of Samajwadi Party workers rallying in support of Talewan Yadav in the Dubulia block. Rajesh Yadav alleged that BJP supporters have not allowed Talewan Yadav to file his nomination, so thousands of SP supporters armed with sticks had come in support of Talewan Yadav.
In July 2021, while filing the nomination for the post of Chief in Dubulia, violence broke out between Samajwadi Party and BJP supporters. Reporting the complete details of this violent incident, several news websites published articles in July 2021. They can be seen here and here. According to these articles, hundreds of SP supporters and SP leaders including Talewan Yadav, Geeta Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, and others incited violence while BJP candidate Vinay Kumar Singh was about to file his nomination for the Dubulia Block Chief post.
Recently, when this video went viral on social media linking to Etawah and to the 2022 UP Elections, Etawah Police issued a clarification that the video shows an old video shot in July 2021 at Dubulia block in UP’s Basti district. Etawah Police said that the video has nothing to do with the 2022 UP Elections and emphasized that no such violent incidents took place recently in Etawah.
To sum it up, an unrelated old video shared as the visuals of Samajwadi Party inciting violence in Etawah post-UP Elections results.
