Fact Check: BJP’s Navya Haridas defeat Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law in local body polls? No, the claim is false
A video claiming that BJP leader Navya Haridas defeated Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law in the Kerala local body elections is going viral on social media.
By - M Ramesh Naik
Claim:BJP candidate Navya Haridas won against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law in the Kerala local body elections.
Fact:The claim is false. Navya Haridas contested and won against candidates from the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal. No member of Pinarayi Vijayan’s family was in the fray.
Hyderabad: Kerala conducted its local body elections in two phases – on December 9 and 11 – across all 14 districts. BJP leader Navya Haridas, the president of the Kerala BJP Mahila Morcha, won from Ward No. 70 (Karapparambu) of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation.
Following her victory, a claim began circulating on social media alleging that Navya Haridas had defeated a member of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s family.
The claim further suggested that she had made good on a vow to politically defeat the Chief Minister’s relatives.
A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “Navya Haridas, who vowed to bring down the family of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan for the conspiracies he was orchestrating at Sabarimala, kept her word by soundly defeating Pinarayi’s nephew and showing him the power of the saffron wave.” (Translated from Telugu) (Archive)
A similar post can be seen here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false.
A keyword search was conducted to verify whether BJP leader Navya Haridas had contested against or defeated Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law or any other family member in the Kerala local body elections.
No credible reports, election records or official data support this claim.
Navya Haridas contested from Ward No. 70, Karapparambu, in the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation and emerged victorious. The official list of winners from the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation confirms her victory from this ward.
Who did BJP’s Navya Haridas contest against in Kerala local body polls?
Further, verification of the candidate list on the State Election Commission Kerala website from the same ward shows that BJP’s Navya Haridas faced Sreeja Kanakan of the Congress party and Hashitha Teacher of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
No relative of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, including his son-in-law or nephew, contested the election from this ward.
Following the declaration of results, Navya Haridas shared a photograph on social media with the other contestants from the ward, further confirming the identities of the candidates she contested against.
The caption to her post read, “Political opponents… with LDF candidate Hashitha Teacher and UDF candidate Sreeja Kanakan… You should be with us for the development work in the ward like this.. Keep up the fight.” (Translated from Malayalam)
The claim that BJP leader Navya Haridas defeated Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law or any other relative in the local body elections is not true. She won the election against candidates from the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and no member of the Chief Minister’s family was involved in the contest.
