Fact Check: This video DOES NOT show Congress candidate's election rally in Maharashtra

The video is from an Eid-e-Milad bike rally that happened in September 2024 in Maharashtra's Latur.

India Today Fact Check

Claim
This video shows Congress candidate’s election rally in Akola, Maharashtra.

Fact
The video is neither recent, nor from Akola. It shows an Eid-e-Milad bike rally from September 2024 in Maharashtra’s Latur.

As Maharashtra prepares to vote for assembly elections on November 20, a video has gone viral on social media that allegedly shows a rally by the Congress party. In the clip, a large group of people can be seen on bikes and cars. A few social media users are claiming that this is an election rally of Sajid Khan, the Congress candidate from Akola West constituency.

Sharing the viral clip, an X user wrote, “Look at their flags. Flags of Palestine, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Hezbollah... No Indian flag. Guess this election rally is from which country? This is in the secular Maharashtra state Akola west. Congress party candidate Sajid Khan Mastan Khan election rally.”

However, India Today Fact Check found that the video is of an Eid-e-Milad bike procession in Maharashtra’s Latur; and not a Congress candidate’s election rally.

OUR PROBE

Upon reverse searching the keyframes of the viral video, we found it uploaded on a YouTube channel in October 2024. According to its title, the video is from the Eid-e-Milad bike rally in Maharashtra’s Latur.

Taking a cue from this, we found several other videos from the Eid-e-Milad rally in Latur. In a video uploaded on September 19, 2024 by Latur News Official, visuals similar to the viral video can be seen. A comparison can be seen below.

We reached out to India Today’s Latur correspondent Ravindra Dhanorkar, who confirmed to us that the viral video is indeed from the Eid-e-Milad procession that took place on September 19, 2024. He also told us that the location shown in the video is of the Old Bus Stand, Gandhi Chowk, Latur.

We also found the location on Google Maps. A comparison of the viral clip screengrabs and Google Maps street view can be seen below.

Some users had shared the viral clip a few months ago linking it to the Congress' rally in Haryana’s Mewat. However, India Today Fact Check had debunked those claims as well.

Sajid Khan Pathan is the Congress candidate from the Akola West constituency. We saw videos of Pathan’s election campaigns which do not have any resemblance to the viral clip.

We could not independently verify whether the flags seen in the rally are associated with Palestine, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, or Hezbollah. However, it is certain that the video of an Eid-e-Milad rally in Latur is being shared as a Congress candidate’s election rally.