As many as 49 parliamentary constituencies in India, including Kaushambi in Uttar Pradesh (UP), will go to polls on May 20 for the fifth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Ahead of the voting day, a video of women protesting and raising slogans against Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is circulating on social media, claiming he faced “public opposition” in Kaushambi recently.
Claim:
In the viral video, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Maurya is surrounded by people, including women, reacting to slogans like “Keshav Maurya Chor Hai (Keshav Maurya is a thief).” He is also seen trying to get the protestors to be quiet.
IP Singh, a spokesperson for the rival Samajwadi Party (SP), shared the video (archived here) on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “Seeing the protest, Keshav Prasad Maurya immediately ran away from the guest house along with Vinod Sonkar. In UP, BJP had to struggle for even 10 seats.” Archived versions of similar posts can be viewed here and here. (Sonkar is the incumbent Member of Parliament from Kaushambi.)
However, we found that the video is not recent and is unrelated to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The video is from January 2022.
Investigation:
A Google search led us to a video uploaded on YouTube (archived here) by news channel TV9 Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand on January 23, 2022. This video showed similar visuals as the viral clip and its description stated that UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya faced opposition from women in his Sirathu constituency during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
We also found a report published by Dainik Bhaskar on January 23, 2022, which included the exact visuals seen in the viral clip. The outlet reported that after announcing his candidacy for the Sirathu assembly seat (located in Kaushambi district) for the UP state elections, Maurya visited Ghulamipur village in his constituency for the first time. The report added that when Maurya reached Ghulamipur to meet local residents, some women closed the house doors, and some people raised slogans against him. Maurya had also reportedly gestured at the women to quieten down before being escorted away by his security personnel. Even after his departure, people continued chanting slogans like “Keshav Maurya is a thief” in Hindi.
Dainik Bhaskar’s report further noted that Maurya was visiting the home of District Panchayat member Poonam Maurya in Sirathu, whose husband, Rajeev Maurya, had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Women there were protesting against police action in the matter, and when the deputy chief minister arrived, they began raising slogans against him.
Several other media outlets, such as Navbharat Times, News18 Uttar Pradesh, and Prabhat Khabar, also reported on the January 2022 incident, corroborating the abovementioned details.
We also found that Maurya held a rally in Sirathu on May 15, 2024, supporting BJP Lok Sabha candidate Vinod Sonkar. However, we came across no reports of people raising slogans or opposing him during the rally.
Conclusion: The viral clip of women raising slogans against Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is of an incident from early 2022. It is unrelated to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.
(This fact check article was originally published by Logically facts and has been republished by Lighthouse Journalism as a part of Shakti Collective.)
