Fact Check: Was DK Shivkumar drunk during election campaigning in Tandur, Telangana?

Hyderabad: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar was in poll-bound Telangana on Saturday, campaigning for the Congress party for the upcoming Assembly polls, scheduled for November 30.

Addressing an election rally at Tandur, he spoke on the six poll guarantees announced by the Congress party. He also said that the guarantees given by Congress in Telangana are better than the five guarantees made by the party in Karnataka, exuding the confidence that Congress will form the government in the state.

Against this backdrop, several X users are sharing a video of Shivakumar walking unsteadily in a crowd, claiming that the video was taken after his campaign in Tandur and that the Karnataka Deputy CM was under the influence of alcohol during the campaign.

An X premium user shared the video with the caption, “Dk. Shiva Kumar after Telangana congress Campaign at Tandoor. (sic)”

Another X premium user reposted the video, claiming the same.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral video is at least from 2022 and shows DK Shivakumar at the Congress Mekedatu Padayatra in Karnataka.

We noticed the ‘newsfirstkannada’ in the ticker in the viral video. Taking this as a cue, we ran a keyword search and found the viral video published by the verified YouTube channel of NewsFirst Kannada on 9 January 2022. The caption states that the video shows a tired Shivakumar during Mekedatu Padayatra.

We also found the video posted on X by a user on January 9, 2022.

An Outlook report from 10 January 2022 said the Congress party, defying COVID-19 restrictions, launched Mekedatu padayatra demanding implementation of the Mekedatu reservoir project across the Cauvery River. It also said FIRs were filed against senior party leaders, including Siddaramiah and DK Shivakumar, for taking out the yatra.

NewsMeter could not verify whether Mr Shivakumar was in an inebriated state. However, we found that the video can be traced back to at least January 2022. In May this year, during the Karnataka Assembly election, it went viral with a similar claim that it showed Shivakumar in a drunken state during the door-to-door campaign ahead of the Karnataka elections. NewsMeter had debunked the false claim at the time too.

Hence, we conclude that the claim that the video shows a ‘drunk’ Shivkumar after a recent election campaign in Tandur in Telangana, is false.