No, Rahul Gandhi did not visit Ayodhya Ram mandir after filing nominations!
The viral video is from February 3, 2024 from his visit to Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, in Deoghar, Jharkhand.
Claim
Pappu became Brahmin again after filing nominations today and went to Ayodhya! People welcomed him with Jai Sree Ram and Modi Modi chants…
Rating
Explanation
General elections in India are scheduled to take place in seven phases between April 19, 2024, and June 1, 2024. After the vote-counting process, the results will be made public on June 4, 2024. The first three phases of the Lok Sabha election are already finished. With their respective campaigns, both major parties are fighting hard.
In this case, a 57-second viral video depicts an extensive crowd of individuals attempting to capture Rahul Gandhi on camera with their cell phones. The Congress leader appears to be grinning as he emerges from an entryway with a pink wrap around him. People can also be heard continually chanting “Jai Shree Ram” and “Modi” at this moment. This post is shared with a claim stating, “Pappu became Brahmin again after filing nominations today and went to Ayodhya! People welcomed him with Jai Sree Ram and Modi Modi chants.” You can view similar claim posts here and here.
Pappu became Brahmin again.
After filing nominations today and went to Ayodhya!
People welcomed him with Jai Sree Ram and Modi Modi chants…
— Sandeep Arya (@Sandeep60817701) May 5, 2024
What’s the truth?
We started our analysis with a simple Google reverse image search of the available keyframes of the viral video. This led us to an extended version of the same clip posted by ANI on February 3, 2024. The tweet is captioned as “Slogans including “Narendra Modi Zindabad”, “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad” raised by some people during Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, in Deoghar, Jharkhand.”
#WATCH | Slogans including “Narendra Modi Zindabad”, “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad” raised by some people during Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, in Deoghar, Jharkhand pic.twitter.com/FEInvJOLfV
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2024
We took this as a cue and searched further and found the same video uploaded by ANI on its YouTube page. The video is titled “Crowd raises ‘Modi, Modi’ chants as Rahul Gandhi visits Baba Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand.” When we looked into the description box of the video the report read, “Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra reached Jharkhand on February 02. Dressed in a Pink Dhoti and Sandalwood powdered forehead, Rahul Gandhi offered prayers at Baba Baidyanath Dham on Feb 03. As soon as Rahul Gandhi entered the famous jyotirlinga in Jharkhand’s Deoghar, loud sloganeering began. The public in large numbers raised ‘Rahul Gandhi Zindabad’ slogans, but suddenly turned into ‘Modi-Modi’ chants. Notably, the 66-day-long Yatra started on Jan 14 from Imphal and will conclude on March 20 in Mumbai.”
This implies that the video is neither from Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, as the widely shared claim asserts, nor is it current following the filing of Rahul Gandhi’s nomination.
Conclusion:
Thus, we conclude that the viral claim stating Rahul Gandhi went to Ayodhya after filing nominations is false. In reality, the video was from Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, in Deoghar, Jharkhand on February 3, 2024.
