What is the claim?
A video circulating on social media platforms purportedly shows Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying that Narendra Modi will remain the prime minister after the 2024 general elections.
In the 56-second viral video, Gandhi is seen addressing a rally and saying, “Narendra Modi will remain the Prime Minister of India. I want to tell you the truth, on June 4, 2024, Narendra Modi will remain the prime minister. You can take it in writing; Narendra Modi may become the Prime Minister of India.” He goes on to say that their alliance — Congress is contesting the elections in Uttar Pradesh with the Samajwadi Party (SP) — will not win a single seat.
Several users shared the video on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Archived versions of such posts can be accessed here, here, and here.
Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Instagram/Modified by Logically Facts)
However, the viral clip is edited. In reality, Gandhi said that Modi will not become the prime minister after June 4, 2024.
How do we know?
We conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video and found the original video (archive here) published on the official YouTube channel of the Indian National Congress (INC) on May 10. The Congress leader held a joint rally with the INDIA bloc leaders, including Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in Kanpur on this date.
Around the one-minute mark in the video, Gandhi can be heard saying, “Let me tell you the truth in the beginning. This is something the Indian media will never tell you but this is the truth. On June 4, 2024, Narendra Modi will not be the Prime Minister of India. Take this in writing (2), Narendra Modi ji can’t become the Prime Minister of India. We have done what we had to do, we have worked hard, now you see that our alliance will not get one seat less than 50 in Uttar Pradesh.”
Referring to the media, between the 2:30-minute to 2:49-minute mark, he said, “They are also smiling because they also know that what Rahul Gandhi is saying is true and Narendra Modi will not become the prime minister, end of story. As we say in English, goodbye, thank you.”
The portion in bold has been further edited to give an impression that Gandhi spoke in favour of Modi. However, throughout his speech, he repeated multiple times that Narendra Modi will not become the prime minister.
The verdict
An edited video was shared to falsely claim that Rahul Gandhi said Modi would become the prime minister after the 2024 Indian general elections. In reality, the Congress leader said the opposite. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts and republished by OrissaPOST as part of the Shakti Collective.