A 2019 video of actor and politician Prakash Raj is being shared on social media to claim that he is asking people to not vote for the Congress in the Karnataka elections.
BOOM found that the video is from 2019 and unrelated to the upcoming state elections.
Voting for the Karnataka Assembly Elections will be held on Wednesday, May 10, and the results will be announced on May 13.
Amid this, a video of Prakash Raj, who has been a vocal critic of the BJP, has been shared to claim that he is criticising the Congress too. "Don't waste your vote on Congress. I have not joined any political party and I am an independent (candidate). I seriously take offence of this dirty politics stooping down by the Congress party," he is heard saying in the 13-second clip.
It is being shared with the caption, "Dear Karnataka, Prakasha has asked you all to NOT waste your votes on Congress. He is offended by the dirty politics of Congress party. So please vote for BJP."
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
The post is also circulating on Facebook.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from 2019, when Raj was contesting the Karnataka elections as an independent candidate.
A keyword search of the video on Google led us to the original video shared by Raj on April 17, 2019. The 1:15 minutes long video was shared with the caption, "FAKE NEWS by CONGRESS.. look at the dirty politics of this party. SHAME ON CONGRESS.. HAVE SENT THE COMPLAINT TO ELECTION COMMISSION WITH PROOF ..please spread and share to counter DIRTY POLITICS."
In the video, he is seen speaking about how a photo of him with then Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad was being shared by the party falsely as Raj supporting Arshad. "I have given an election complaint, please don't believe in such rumours," he added.
Watch the full video here:
Both Rizwan Arshad and Prakash Raj lost to BJP candidate PC Mohan in this election.
We also found several news articles from April 2019 that published reports about Prakash Raj's tweet. Read here and here.
