A video of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan voicing uncertainty about the Bhartiya Janata Party winning the upcoming state election against Congress's Kamal Nath is doctored. The India TV Fact Check team found that the video is old and Chouhan made no such statement recently; fake audio has been overlaid into the video to make the false claim. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Madhya Pradesh this month, with voting set to begin on November 17, 2023, and the results to be declared on December 3.
In the viral video, Chouhan can be heard saying, "I'm saying several times, Stop Kamal Nath. If Congress comes to power, then they will start giving everyone (cooking) gas at 1500 and 500 rupees. Then leave this time; even next time, we'll not be able to win. We have already given some people 1250 rupees; they will give everyone We have just announced for the sake of it that we'll give everyone a (cooking) gas cylinder at 450 rupees; they will actually give because they are already giving in other states. Do anything but stop Kamal Nath." The video was tweeted by the X (formerly Twitter) handle Pawan Dixit (@incdixit) with a false claim.
The same video is being widely shared on Facebook with the false claim.
India did a fact-check
The India TV Fact Check team found that the old video of Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been overlaid with fake audio mimicking the chief minister to make the claims. Chouhan made no such statement about being worried about losing to Congress's Kamal Nath in the election. The India TV FACT Check team has previously debunked a similar video with fake audio that claims to show Chouhan worried about the Bhartiya Janata Party's prospects in the upcoming assembly election.
Taking a hint from the ANI logo visible in the viral video, we ran a keyword search on ANI's MP/CG/Rajasthan X handle and found that the original video was uploaded on June 13, 2023. The caption of the video reads, "#WATCH | Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan holds a review meeting with ministers of the state government and senior officials over the incident of fire at Bhopal's Satpura Bhawan." The video tweeted by ANI has no audio and shows long shots, whereas in the viral video, the audio is clear without any ambient sound, suggesting it was recorded separately. The visuals in the original video match those in the viral video, and Chouhan can be seen wearing the same outfit.
We also found an ANI report on the same meeting published in The Times of India on June 13, 2023, which stated that a meeting was organised at the MP CM's residence to discuss the fire that broke out at Satpura Bhavan.
Also read | Fact Check: Did CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan express fear of BJP's defeat in MP elections? | Here's truth
