Fact Check by LOGICALLY FACTS:
The Verdict [Misleading]
These pictures were taken in 2019 when the TDP chief met with Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow to discuss the possibility of forming an anti-BJP front before the general elections.
What is the claim?
Photographs of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu seated together have been shared with a claim suggesting that the two leaders met after the declaration of the 2024 general election results on June 4.
As per the Election Commission of India, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 240 seats, while the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), led by the Congress won 232 seats. With neither party surpassing the halfway mark, there is widespread speculation that the INDIA alliance is endeavouring to approach with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which secured 16 Lok Sabha seats in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, and another NDA constituent, Janata Dal (United) led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which secured 12 seats out of 40 in the northern state.
Now, images of Naidu meeting Yadav, whose party is a party of the INDIA bloc, have been shared on social media with the caption, “Akhilesh Yadav met Chandra Babu Naidu. A big game will happen in few hours…(sic).” Archives of such posts can be accessed here and here.
However, this photo is from 2019 and is unrelated to the current discussions regarding the formation of the government in India.
What did we find?
Photo 1
We found that the image of Akhilesh Yadav presenting Naidu with a shawl is indeed from 2019. A reverse image search led to a report on Rediff published on May 18, 2019, featuring this photo. According to the report, Naidu met with Yadav in Lucknow along with Rahul Gandhi of the Congress, D. Raja and G. Sudhakar Reddy of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Sharad Pawar of the then undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the late Sharad Yadav of the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the formation of a joint anti-BJP front before the election verdict.
News agency ANI (archived here) also shared the photo on its X account on May 18, 2019.
Photo 2
The second image of Naidu and Akhilesh Yadav sitting together is also from the same meeting. The photo was shared by Yadav on his official X (archived here) with the caption, “It is a pleasure to welcome Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri N Chandrababu Naidu Ji to Lucknow.” It is important to note that Naidu served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2019.
At that time, Naidu had resigned from the NDA coalition and was engaged in meetings with various opposition leaders to garner support for the formation of an anti-BJP alliance.
It's worth noting that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) contested the recently held Lok Sabha elections and Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Jana Sena Party under the NDA (National Democratic Alliance).
According to a report in The Hindu, on June 5, Naidu stated that his party was still a part of the NDA, and he intended to attend the NDA meeting in New Delhi to discuss the formation of the new government at the center. There have been no reports indicating that Naidu met with Yadav yesterday or today to discuss any potential alliance.
The verdict
The images from 2019 depicting TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu meeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have been wrongly associated with the Lok Sabha election results.
(Disclaimer: This story was originally published by LOGICALLY FACTS, and republished by India TV as part of the Shakti Collective.)
