An old, clipped video of Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has recently been shared on social media falsely claiming that it shows Kejriwal has publicly appealed to vote for the Congress party in Jalandhar bypoll during a recent interaction.
BOOM found that the video is from 2017 and is cropped and being shared out of context. Kejriwal was making allegations against the Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the original video.
On May 10, a byelection was conducted by the Election Commision of India (ECI) for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat due to the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary after suffering a cardiac arrest. Chaudhary took part during Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra and collapsed in the rally before taken to the hospital. As per news reports, around 54 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the recent electoral battle.
The 9-seconds-long video shows Kejriwal saying, "In this election, do not vote for the Akali Dal and the BJP. Vote unitedly for the Congress."
The clip is being shared with a Hindi text that translates to, "National President of Aam Aadmi Party and Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal set an example of opposition unity, appealed to vote for the Congress party in Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election despite being a Chief Minister and having his own government!"
(Original Text in Hindi: आम आदमी पार्टी के राष्ट्रिय अध्यक्ष एवं दिल्ली के मुख्यमंत्री अरविंद केजरीवाल ने विपक्षी एकता की मिसाल कायम करी, खुद की सरकार और मुख्यमंत्री होने के बावजूद जालंधर लोकसभा उपचुनाव में कांग्रेस पार्टी को वोट देने की अपील करी!)
Click here to view the tweet.
Fact Check
BOOM went through the official Facebook page of Arvind Kejriwal to look for the original video and found it to be part of a Facebook Live done in January 30, 2017.
Click here to view the post.
In the video, Kejriwal can be heard saying, "Sat sri akal ji, namaskar and pranam to all of you. It is being heard that the RSS and the Akali Dal workers have started a door-to-door campaign urging not give votes to the Akali Dal and the BJP in this election but vote unitedly for the Congress. The news of the Akali Dal, the RSS and the BJP people shifting their votes to the Congress are coming from everywhere."
He also continues his speech saying, "Firstly, it proves the same thing that we say repeatedly, they all are connected. They are contesting the election forming an alliance. All of these parties have only one intention, do not bring the Aam Aadmi Party (to power). Because, if the Aam Aadmi Party comes (to power), all of their old files will be opened, and they will go to jail. All of their corruptions will be unearthed."
Kejriwal also urges the people to vote for the AAP and to defeat his oppositions in the later part of the video.
We also found another video on Arvind Kejriwal's Facebook timeline from February 2, 2017, with a caption saying, "Congress is peddling a fake video in my name. Don't trust that."
Click here to view the video.
Kejriwal, in the video, alleges that the Akali Dal and the Congres together are peddling old, edited video to show he is seeking votes in favour of the Congress. He also mentions that the video to be fake and urges to spread his message about it.
The longer version of the video makes it clear that Kejriwal making allegations against RSS and Akali Dal workers claiming that they are asking people to vote for Congress to make sure AAP does not come to power.