Video of K'taka seer's funeral possession shared as Chandrababu Naidu's Kuppam rally

Hyderabad: A video of a massive crowd has gone viral on social media. It is being claimed that the shows a grand welcome for former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu in Kuppam.

This comes after Mr. Naidu was prevented from entering the Kuppam constituency after the Andhra Pradesh government issued an order prohibiting public meetings and rallies on roads across the state.

The video is reportedly from the Kuppam rally.

An archived version of the post can be seen here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is from a funeral procession of Karnataka seer Siddheshwar Swamiji who passed away at the age of 82 on 3 January 2023.

On performing a reverse image search of the keyframes of the viral video, we found similar versions of the video on the YouTube channel of a Karnataka-based media organisation Public TV. It was titled "Siddheshwar Swamiji's body embalming begins."

NewsFirst Kannada had also uploaded the video.

Taking the video as a cue, we found a report by The Times of India about the passing away of 82-year-old seer Siddheshwar Swamiji after a prolonged illness on 3 January 2023.

We also found the same video tweeted by a Twitter user which clearly states that the video is from the funeral procession of Siddheshwar Swamiji.

It should also be noted that the Telugu Desam Party rally in Kuppam took place on 4 January 2023 whereas the viral video is from 3 January.

It is evident that the viral video is not linked to the recent TDP rally in Kuppam. Hence, the claim is false.