News Checker Fact Check: A video of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is going viral on social media, in which he is seen expressing apprehension over the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this Lok Sabha election. This video is being shared with the claim of being current. However, fact check found that the viral video is from August 10, 2022, when Nitish Kumar had attacked BJP after taking oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the 8th time.
The viral video is of about 7 seconds, in which Nitish Kumar is seen saying to the media that “We cannot say whether those who came at fourteen will be able to stay ahead till twenty-four”.
This video has been shared with the caption of the recent claim, “I cannot say whether those who came in fourteen will be able to stay in twenty-four – Nitish Kumar. Uncle is fully prepared to strike again. The direction of the wind has been known”.
fact check
newschecker The Fact Check team conducted a keyword search using the words being spoken in the video to verify the claim. During this, the team received a report published on Aaj Tak’s website on August 10, 2022. In this report of Aaj Tak, it was told that on August 10, 2022, Nitish Kumar’s party Janata Dal-U had broken its alliance with BJP and had formed a new government with Lalu Yadav’s party Rashtriya Janata Dal. In this government, Nitish Kumar was made the Chief Minister and Tejashwi Yadav was made the Deputy Chief Minister.
When Nitish Kumar spoke to media persons at Raj Bhavan after swearing in, he appeared very attacking on BJP. During this time, in response to a question, he even said that “Can’t say anything about whether those who came in 14th will be able to stay till 24th or not”. What he meant to say was Narendra Modi, because Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister after getting majority in the 2019 elections.
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On digging deeper during the fact check, a video uploaded on August 10, 2022 was also found from the YouTube account of ABP News. The longer version of the viral video was present in this video. In this video of about 29 minutes, the scene of Nitish Kumar talking to the media during the swearing in at Bihar Raj Bhavan was also present. At about 21 minutes, when a media person asked him a question about becoming the Prime Ministerial candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar replied, “We have no claim on any candidate for any post. But it is certain that those who come in 14, we cannot say whether they will be able to stay ahead till 24 or not.”
Apart from this, in the video uploaded from the Facebook account of NDTV India on August 10, 2022, Nitish Kumar can also be heard saying the same thing which is present in the reports above.
It is noteworthy that Nitish Kumar’s party JDU and BJP have been in alliance for a long time. But in 2013, JDU broke the alliance with BJP citing ideological differences. After this, he formed a government with RJD and Congress in the 2015 assembly elections, but this government could not last long. Nitish Kumar broke ties with RJD in 2017 and formed the government again with BJP. After this, both the parties together contested the 2020 assembly elections and formed the government. But once again in 2022, Nitish Kumar broke the alliance with BJP and formed the government again with RJD. However, this alliance also did not last long and in 2023 Nitish Kumar again joined BJP. At present JDU and BJP are contesting the Lok Sabha elections together.
(This story was originally published by newschecker.in. Fact Check Desk, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline/excerpt/opening introduction para this story has not been edited by News18india.com staff)
Tags: Fact Check, fake news, Loksabha Elections, Viral Photo
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 14, 2024, 19:25 IST