Fact Check: Has Harish Rao accepted BRS defeat ahead of Telangana election results?

Hyderabad:A video of Telangana State health minister Harish Raoof the BRS government allegedly accepting his party’s defeat in the ensuing State Assembly election in 2023 is going viral on social media.A video of Telangana State health minister Harish Rao of the BRS government allegedly accepting his party’s defeat in the ensuing State Assembly election in 2023 is going viral on social media.

The video was shared on social media with a caption, “ఓటమిని ఒప్పుకున్న హరీష్ రావు గారు (Harish Rao has accepted defeat).”

In the video, Rao could be heard saying, “I want to thank every karyakata (party worker) of the TRS party who worked very hard for the victory and unfortunately could not get it and I take responsibility for the defeat. (Translated from Telugu)”

Telangana is on the cusp of declaring the polling results for its State Assembly Elections on December 3. Ahead of the result, many media organisations have declared exit poll results, with many giving a majority to Congress.

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Fact Check

NewsMeter found that Harish Rao’s video is not related to the ongoing State Assembly Elections in Telangana.

On searching with the keyword ‘Harish Rao defeat,’ on Facebook, we found the same video uploaded on a Facebook page, AbnAndhrajyothy, on November 11, 2020. The video was shared with the caption, ‘Minister Harish Rao Emotional Words on Dubbaka Defeat || It’s My Responsibility || ABN Telugu."

Taking that as a cue, we searched for ‘Harish Rao defeat in Dubukka,’ and found the same video published by YouTube channels called Filmy Trend and News Watch Telugu on November 11, 2020.

Another news website, Gulte.com also reported on the incident. According to its report, Harish Rao took responsibility for the TRS (now BRS) party’s defeat in the Dubbaka by-election.

Thus, an old video of Harish Rao has gone viral with a misleading claim.