The video of Pushkar Singh Dhami distributing money to the voters in 2022 elections is viral!
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Explanation
India will hold general elections in seven stages between April 19, 2024, and June 1, 2024. After the ballots are counted, the results will be made public on June 4, 2024. Officially, the first phase of the Lok Sabha election has ended already.
Meanwhile, a one-minute, eight-second video, features two collages. On one side, we watch an orange envelope being opened, revealing two 500 Rupee notes that someone displayed to us. On the other hand, we observe a man interacting with the throngs of people, appearing to be having a conversation with them. The video also carries an infographic read as ‘Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was caught distributing money openly.’ This post is shared with a claim stating, “Pushkar Dhami ji tearing 400 paar drum of Modi ji.” You can view similar claim posts here, here, here, and here.
मोदी जी के 400 पार का ढोल फाड़ते पुस्कर धामी जी #ElectionCommission #Elections2024 #ModiTohGayopic.twitter.com/lZJ2l0c7TW
— Adarsh Katiyar INC (@AdarshKatiyaINC) April 19, 2024
What’s the truth?
We began our investigation by searching Google for pertinent terms, which took us to some news articles from 2022. On February 13, 2022, Live Hindustan published an item with the headline “AAP leader’s allegations, CM Pushkar Singh Dhami is distributing money for votes in Uttarakhand.” Notably, the same viral video was included in the story as well.
According to the article, a new scandal has surfaced just one day before the Assembly elections of 2022, which are scheduled for February 14. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has been accused by Aam Aadmi Party candidate SS Kaler of distributing money to buy votes in the Khatima assembly constituency after the election campaign.
Following this lead, we discovered another piece posted on February 13, 2022, by Samagra Bharat. “CM Pushkar Singh Dhami is distributing money in Uttarakhand: AAP” is the title of this article. The article can be read here.
From the stories mentioned above, we know that the AAP posted the viral clip on their X account. The Uttarakhand unit of the AAP posted this video on February 13, 2022, along with the caption, “What’s going on in Khatima? After the election campaign, Pushkar Singh Dhami is giving out money. the moment AAP candidate SS Kaler publicly criticized Dhami. When he was caught distributing money, he tried to switch the camera, then you appealed to the Election Commission and the CEO to take cognizance of it.”
खटीमा में ये क्या हो रहा है?@pushkardhami चुनाव प्रचार खत्म होने के बाद खुलेआम पैसे बाँट रहे हैं।
खटीमा से आम आदमी पार्टी के प्रत्याशी @sskaleraap ने खुद धामी को रंगे हाथों पकड़ा तो धामी ने कैमेरा बंद कराने की कोशिश की।@ECISVEEP व @UttarakhandCEO जल्द इसका संज्ञान लें। pic.twitter.com/oLpuKV7UkX
— Aam Aadmi Party Uttarakhand (@AAPUttarakhand) February 13, 2022
But CM Dhami isn’t shown giving out cash to people in the video.
Nevertheless, it has been reported that CM Dhami is also discussing turning off the cameras. Kaler and Dhami got into a furious argument in front of the cops. CM Dhami is being accused of power abuse by AAP workers.
The aforementioned details elucidate and verify that the widely shared viral film is outdated originating from the Uttarakhand 2022 Assembly elections.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude that the widely circulated video, which purports to show Pushkar Dhami caught giving out money during the 2024 election, is false and misleading. The footage is actually from 2022 and is quite old and unrelated to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
