Lighthouse Journalism found a clipped video of Asaduddin Owaisi, president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). In the video he is seen saying, ‘They cannot stop BJP, I am stating the fact. When the results are out, you will remember that I said this’.
During the investigation we found that he did say this, but aimed it at the RJD party and did not say this with intention of accepting the defeat.
Claim:
X user Paise Wala shared the video with the claim that Asaduddin Owaisi accepted defeat.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the same video.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video.
We found a news report which had carried similar keyframes.
Through this news report we found that the visuals were from a recent rally of AIMIM leaders in Patna.
We then ran a keyword search on YouTube about the same.
Through this we found a video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Jansatta.
In the video Owaisi starts with how Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav said that they will never let BJP win in Bihar. The voters did vote against BJP but still it is the BJP government here in Bihar. He then questioned if it was not the responsibility of RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal).
At around 8 minutes in the video Owaisi says that Lalu Prasad Yadav lost in Patliputra, he then questions that they did they lose on purpose since they took money from BJP. AIMIM contested election on one seat in Kishanganj and still won.
He then gives more such examples and at around 8 minutes 42 seconds, Owaisi says, “And if you lose this seat this time, write it down, keep it safe in a video, they will not be able to stop BJP. If I say this RJD people will say, see Owaisi said this. But I am telling the truth. People will know this when the results are out.”
Right from the beginning, Asaduddin Owaisi was seen blaming Rashtriya Janata Dal in the video. He did not say that it is he who has accepted defeat.
Conclusion: Clipped video of AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi goes viral claiming he has accepted defeat before results, viral claim is misleading. He was instead saying that it is RJD who won’t be able to stop BJP from winning.
