Fact Check: 2019 video of PM Modi’s massive rally in West Bengal falsely linked to 2024 elections

Hyderabad: As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections conclude in several parts of the country, all eyes are on Punjab where a four-cornered fight is expected. The Congress, AAP, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and the BJP brace for a showdown as voting for all 13 seats in the state is slated in the final phase of polling on June 1.

Against this backdrop, a video of prime minister Narendra Modi addressing a massive crowd, with chants of his name echoing, has gone viral on social media. The accompanying text claims that the video depicts PM Modi’s rally at the Pap ground in Jalandhar, Punjab.

An X user shared the video (archive), describing it as a ‘spectacle’ in Punjabi. The user’s bio identifies itself as the ‘Voice of Punjabi Hindus’.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video shows Modi’s rally in Kolkata, West Bengal from 2019, not from ongoing elections in Jalandhar, Punjab.

Upon conducting a reverse image search, we found the video posted by the official X handles of BJP (archive) and PM Modi (archive) on April 3, 2019. The accompanying caption stated that the video depicts PM Modi’s rally in Kolkata.

Here are the screengrabs from the viral clip and the video posted by the handles associated with the BJP showing identical visuals.

We also found several reports of PM Modi addressing a mega rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground on April 3, 2019. According to NDTV and India Today, during the event, he launched scathing attacks on Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Congress party, accusing them of undermining the armed forces and neglecting national security.

Moreover, we verified that PM Modi indeed addressed a public gathering in Jalandhar on May 24, 2024. Video clips of the rally shared by the news agency PTI (archive) depict him wearing saffron headgear. Subsequently, we found a 28-minute video of the prime minister addressing the gathering, which was live-streamed on his official channel on the same date. In both the PTI clips and the extended video, Modi is seen wearing saffron headgear. However, the viral clip does not feature him wearing saffron headgear.