Fact Check: Revanth Reddy did not say temple lands will be sold for Muslim welfare

A statement attributed to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President A. Revanth Reddy is going viral on social media. The statement was purportedly published by Way2News.

It is being claimed that while replying to a journalist’s question about how will Congress collect funds for the upliftment of Muslims as envisaged in the minority declaration, Revanth Reddy said that they will pool the money by auctioning Hindu temple lands.

NewsMeter received the screengrab of the alleged statement on WhatsApp for verification.

A Facebook user shared the screengrab with the caption, “Wakf lands will not be sold. The Congress will sell temple lands and distribute them to Muslims. What a shameful bunch of idiots. We have to say Hindus who trust them and vote for them.”

Several X and Facebook users have also shared the screengrab, amplifying the claim. (Click here, here and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter, in its investigation, found no such statement was made by Revanth Reddy.

We ran a relevant keyword search but did not come across any article by credible media reporting the alleged statement. However, we came across a post by the X handle of Way2News denying publishing any such story.

“This is not a #Way2News story. Some miscreants are spreading misinformation using our logo, and the ‘attached post’ has gone viral. We confirm that this has not been published by us,” read the post.

Speaking to NewsMeter, TPCC spokesman Sama Ram Mohan Reddy confirmed that the screenshot of the news channels with a statement attributed to the TPCC president is fake news.

He said, “ BJP and BRS, in collusion, are spreading the fake news out of the fear that the Congress is going to win the state assembly election. These attempts are to polarise the vote on religious lines. BRS has adopted BJP’s functioning style to propagate lies and distract people from real issues.”

Hence, we conclude that the statement attributed to TPCC President Revanth Reddy is false.