A video of a packed road was filmed throughout a non secular pageant in India’s Odisha state, opposite to posts claiming it exhibits an enormous turnout for Indian opposition chief Rahul Gandhi’s voter consciousness rally in neighbouring Bihar state. The photographer who shot the unique video informed AFP he filmed it throughout the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra in 2024.
“The large turnout exhibits Rahul Gandhi will likely be prime minister in 2029,” reads the Hindi-language caption of a Fb video shared on August 20, 2025.
Textual content superimposed on the video, an aerial view of a big crowd shifting slowly alongside a road, interprets as “Folks’s Hero Rahul Gandhi”.
Screenshot of the false Fb publish captured on August 21, 2025, with a crimson X added by AFP
The clip was shared in comparable Fb and X posts as opposition Congress social gathering chief Gandhi launched a 16-day Voter Consciousness March in India’s jap Bihar state, the place elections will likely be held in October and November (archived hyperlink).
Gandhi has beforehand accused India’s Election Fee of manipulating voter rolls to favour the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who received a third time period in 2024 however fell wanting a majority (archived right here and right here).
The fee has known as Gandhi’s accusation “false and deceptive”.
Whereas native media reported giant crowds attended Gandhi’s rally in Bihar, the video doesn’t present crowds on the occasion (archived hyperlink).
Hindu chariot pageant
A reverse picture search on Google utilizing keyframes from the falsely shared clip led to the similar video posted on Instagram by photographer Vikki Keshri on June 2 (archived hyperlink).
Its caption mentions “Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra” — certainly one of India’s greatest non secular festivals, held yearly in Puri within the jap state of Odisha (archived hyperlink).
A function of the pageant is the dragging of three Hindu deities in enormous chariots from one temple to a different roughly three kilometres (1.5 miles) away. In 2025, the pageant started in April and led to July.
Screenshot comparability of the falsely shared video (left) and the Instagram clip posted on June 2, 2025 (proper)
Keshri informed AFP he used a drone to shoot the video throughout the pageant in 2024.
“As a consequence of restrictions on drone use on the pageant this 12 months, I re-uploaded final 12 months’s drone footage,” he stated on August 26.
The identical footage might be seen in his Instagram publish from July 8, 2024, and different posts on his account present the pageant’s well-known huge chariots (archived hyperlink).
Options of the circulating video additionally correspond to Google Road View imagery of Puri (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot comparability of the circulating footage (left) and Google Road View imagery of the identical road in Puri (proper)
AFP has additionally beforehand debunked different misinformation linked to Gandhi.
