Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Video claims to show Rahul Gandhi conceding defeat after the election results were declared.
Fact
Viral video is old and shows Rahul’s response after the 2014 election defeat.
A video allegedly showing Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi conceding election defeat after the results of 2024 Lok Sabha elections were declared is going viral on TikTok.
The Election Commission of India declared the results of elections held for all 543 Lok Sabha seats in which Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party won 240 seats while the Indian National Congress won 99 seats.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @sanatani06 posted a video purportedly showing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaking after the results were announced. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Scenes after 2024 election results June 4.” In the video, Gandhi says, “They have been given the mandate by the people of our country. So, I wish the new government all the best. From my part, the Congress party has done pretty badly, there is a lot for us to think about. As vice president of our party, I hold myself responsible for what…” The video clip is interrupted by another person who says in Hindi, “Now, wait for a while.” Then, the video shows leader Sonia Gandhi speaking, “Now, the results of Lok Sabha election have arrived. Congress faced its opposition with the achievements, policies and principles. However, we didn’t get the support as expected. We have to accept the fact that defeat and victory are part of democracy.” The video caption reads, “BJP wins again.”
The video posted on June 4 has garnered 2014likes, 120 users have shared it and 81 users have commented on it. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker ran a search on Google by taking clues from the speech of Rahul Gandhi. The search threw up several news articles (See here, here & here) indicating that the remarks were made by Rahul Gandhi after his party’s election defeat in 2014. On checking an article, dated May 17, 2014, we found that Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi accepted the party’s defeat and conceded that the mandate in the Lok Sabh polls was clearly against the Congress.
Further, we conducted a search on YouTube by using the clues from the news and found a video, dated May 16, 2014, published on the YouTube channel named ‘Indian National Congress’. On checking the video, we found that the video footage from the 0.4-minute timestamp exactly matched the viral video. The video actually showed a brief press conference organised by Indian Congress after the party’s election debacle in 2014.
Thus, our findings clearly indicate that the viral video shows Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi responding to the media after their party’s Lok Sabha election defeat in 2014 and falsely shared in the context of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Conclusion
The viral video doesn’t show the response of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after the results of 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The video is from 2024.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
The New Indian Express, May 17, 2014
Indian National Congress /YouTube, May 16, 2014
Zee News, May 17, 2014
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
