Fact Check: Jubilee Hills bypoll – Congress pick Naveen Yadav insults Muslims? No, Telugu news clipping is fake

Hyderabad: The Jubilee Hills by-election will be held on November 11. All India Congress Committee (AICC) announced Naveen Yadav as the party candidate on October 8. Naveen Yadav is set to file his nomination papers on October 17.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of sitting Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year. The opposition BRS fielded Maganti Sunitha, widow of the late MLA, who filed her nomination on October 16.

In the context of the ongoing nomination process, a news clipping claiming that the Congress candidate Naveen Yadav made inflammatory comments regarding the Muslim community is going viral on social media.

The viral news clipping’s Telugu title, when translated, reads, “Instead of offering namaz every day, take a bath”. It claimed that Naveen Yadav made these sensational comments on Muslims during his campaign in Jubilee Hills.

In the news clipping, the main points, allegedly made by Naveen, are, “Muslims in bastis are unhygienic… Muslims are not clean, that’s why their businesses are not running properly. If Muslims take a bath every day instead of offering namaz, their lives will improve. Muslims are not good at studies, so it is better for them to do business… Minority youth are supplying ganja and illicit liquor and destroying the city. Muslim youth must stop these crazy bike races; otherwise, they will be put in jail”. (Translated from Telugu)

Sharing the news clipping on X, a user wrote in the caption, “How can he say so much truth, all at once?” (Translated from Telugu) (Archive)

Posts making similar claims can be found here and here (now deleted). (Archive 1, Archive 2)

The dateline of the news clipping reads, “Jubilee Hills, October 16, News Today”. Referring to this, the X user stated that the source of the news clipping is the Eenadu newspaper. (Archive)

Another X user who shared the viral news clipping also stated that it was published by Eenadu daily. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The viral newspaper clipping is fabricated.

Using keyword searches, we did not find any news reports or credible social media posts stating that Congress candidate Naveen Yadav made inflammatory comments against Muslims.

We have also checked the website of Eenadu daily. Eenadu does use ‘News Today’ in the dateline for some reports. However, we did not find the viral news report on the Eenadu website.

We also checked the e-paper edition for October 16 and found no such news report on Naveen Yadav.

Of all the social media accounts that shared the viral newspaper clipping, we found that an Instagram account, ‘congressdongalu’, was the first to share the clipping.

This account shared AI-generated reels, commentary videos and memes against the Congress Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the party candidate Naveen Yadav.

What did Naveen Yadav’s team say about the news?

We reached out to Naveen Yadav’s team, who told us he never made any such comments against the Muslim community.

Speaking to NewsMeter, a member of Naveen Yadav’s team said, “This is a fake article. It was obviously made using some template. Naveen Anna has a very good, ground-level support from the Muslim Community despite being a Hindu himself. He tells us often about how he was fielded as a candidate from the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), where he started his political journey.”

Naveen Yadav had contested the 2014 Telangana Assembly polls on behalf of Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM and as an independent candidate in the 2018 elections. He joined Congress in 2023.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral newspaper clipping is fabricated.

Fake news on Jubilee Hills bypoll

NewsMeter has also debunked other viral claims surrounding the Jubilee Hills by-elections. You can read the reports here and here.