NC Leader Suneel Sharma Joined RSP? No, Viral Video Is False

Claim
Nepali Congress leader Suneel Sharma joins Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).
Fact
No, photo carried in the viral video AI-generated.

A video claiming that Nepali Congress leader Dr Suneel Sharma has joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has gone viral on TikTok.

TikTok user @nishuu_08 posted a video showing RSP chairman Rabi Lamichhane and his wife Nikata Poudel, among other party cadres, welcoming Nepali Congress leader Suneel Sharma. The image carried in the viral video shows Chairman Lamichhane clapping beside Sharma and his wife Nikita offering him a garland. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Nepali Congress leader Dr Suneel Sharma has joined Rastriya Swatantra Party. Please comment whether Suneel’s step was good or bad.”

The video posted on December 23 has garnered 35.7k likes, 792 users have shared it and 1667 people have commented on it until the last count.

The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.

Newschecker found the claim to be AI-generated.

Fact Check /Verification

To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker ran a search for the news regarding Sunil Sharma joining RSP by using relevant keywords. However, we did not find any credible news report to substantiate the claim that leader Suneel Sharma has joined the RSP.  

We then took a key-frame from the viral video and ran a reverse search on it. The search did not yield any credible reports. We rather found other social media posts resembling the viral video.  (See here & here)

As our investigation could not establish the authenticity of the video, we checked a key-frame from the viral video through AI-detection tool Reversely and TruthScan. Both the tools indicated that the image carried in the viral video is clearly AI generated.

Further, we reached out to Suneel Sharma’s personal aide, Bibek Limbu, who told that the viral claim is fake. “We have lodged a case at the cyber bureau against such fake social media posts claiming Sharma has joined RSP,” he said.

Thus, our findings clearly indicated that the viral video is AI-generated.

Conclusion

No, Nepali Congress leader Suneel Sharma has not joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party. The image carried in the viral video is AI generated.

Result: False  

Sources
Direct Conversation with Sharma’s personal aide Bibek Limbu.