Fact Check: ISIS, Hezbollah flags at Congress bike rally in Maharashtra’s Akola? No, here are the facts

Hyderabad: Election campaigns are in full swing in Maharashtra, which is set to go to the polls on November 20. In this context, some social media users and media outlets are sharing a video claiming that flags of ‘Palestine, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, and Hezbollah’ were displayed at Congress party candidate Sajid Khan Mastan Khan’s election rally in Akola West. The video shows a procession of bikes with men holding various flags.

An X user shared the video of the bike rally writing “Look at their flags. Flags of Palestine, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Hezbollah! .... No Indian flag. Guess this election rally is from which country? Congress party candidate Sajid Khan Mastan Khan election rally in Akola west of secular Maharashtra!” (Archive)

Indian Herald reported the viral video with a headline “Shocking! Palestine, Iran, ISIS, Hezbollah flags in Congress election rally in Akola West.”

Inkhabar also shared similar reports of the viral video with the headline “ISIS-Hezbollah flag seen at Maharashtra Congress leader's rally, people got angry as not a single tricolour was seen” (translated).

Fact Check

NewsMeter found this claim to be false, as the video of the bike rally is not from Congress leader Sajid Khan Mannan Khan’s election campaign for the Maharashtra polls. (Note: The viral post refers to him as Sajid Khan Mastan Khan, but according to the My Neta website, the Congress candidate's correct name is Sajid Khan Mannan Khan.)

With a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, NewsMeter found the same video uploaded to a YouTube channel on September 23. This confirms that the video is more than a month old. Also, according to the video title, the rally was from Latur to Mumbai.

Through keyword search we also found a similar video from the same rally uploaded to the YouTube channel ‘Latur News Official’ in September. According to the channel, the video was from the Milad un Nabi bike rally in Latur.

A comparison between the viral video and the video uploaded to the YouTube channel ‘Latur News Official’ shows striking similarities. In both the videos, the same black car and a man in white attire holding a tricolour flag are clearly visible.

Comparison:

By searching with the keywords ‘Latur Telephone Tower,’ we identified the Telephone Bhavan in Mahatma Gandhi Chowk, Latur, which features a tower resembling the one in the viral video. Using Google Street View, we pinpointed the exact location on MSH3 Road, where the viral video was recorded.

Below is a comparison between a keyframe from the viral video and the Google Street View image of the same location in Latur. Sajid Khan Mannan Khan is the Congress candidate for the Akola West constituency in Akola district. Notably, Latur district is over 302 kilometers away from Akola.

There are some differences in the buildings visible in the frame, as the Google Street View images are from February 2023, while the viral video is from September 2024. In addition to the infrastructure changes, the time gap between the two images also shows noticeable differences in the foliage.

We also found similar videos of bike rallies held in Latur during Milad-un-Nabi celebrations in previous years.

We did not independently verify whether ISIS or Hezbollah flags were raised at the Latur rally. However, it is clear that the video is old and unrelated to Sajid Khan’s election rally in Maharashtra.