Fact Check: Not vote rigging in Hyderabad's Bahadurpura, this is an old video from West Bengal

Social Media users are sharing a video claiming that vote rigging was committed by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) cadres at a polling booth in Hyderabad’s Bahadurpura during the May 13 general elections.

Sharing the video on X a user wrote (Archive), “It is said that this video is of MIM Bahadurpura! please make it viral so that reelection is done by the election commission. Kindly look into it and do the needful.”

Similar posts can be seen here and here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is from the 2022 municipal elections in West Bengal. It has nothing to do with Telangana elections.

NewsMeter noticed that the people in the video were talking in Bangla. Taking this as a cue, we performed a reverse image search of the video's keyframe using keywords. We found the video posted by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) on 27 February 2022. Both parties had accused Trinamool Congress (TMC) of vote rigging.

On the same date, the Congress party also posted images similar to the visuals in the video accusing the TMC of vote rigging.

Further, we found the video published by TV9 Bangla on 27 February. It said that during the West Bengal municipal election of 2022, an agent was voting in booth no.108 of ward no. 33 of South Dumdum.

The video was also published by another Bengali digital channel 'Aarohi News', on 27 February. It said the incident occurred in South Dumdum.

As the video went viral on social media, the Chief Election Officer of Telangana, on May 15, issued a clarification stating the video is old and not from Telangana.

“ A video clip which shows the inside of a polling station with the Presiding Officer (wearing a surgical mask) is doing rounds on social media. The clip shows a person (wearing a striped dark blue round-collar T-shirt) standing next to a compartment. People are going into the compartment and coming out, while the person (in the blue striped T-shirt) guides the person going inside the compartment. A beep sound, like that of an EVM, is heard every time a person exits the compartment. It is being claimed that this video is from Bahadurpura AC of Hyderabad PC, and it shows rigging in the polling station. It is hereby pointed out that this is an OLD VIDEO, NOT linked to the Parliamentary election in Telangana or to any other election in Telangana,” the statement said.

Hence, it is clear that the video doesn’t show vote rigging in Hyderabad’s Bahadurpura. It is an old video from West Bengal.