FACT CHECK BY FACTLY: One of the videos related to Uttar Pradesh’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya which is being termed as a recent one is doing the rounds. In the video a huge crowd protesting against Maurya are raising the slogan ‘Keshav Maurya Chor Hai’ and the video is being shared on social media (here, here, and here) amidst the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections in UP.
The archived post can be seen here.
Claim: In Kaushambi, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya faced strong opposition and quickly left the guest house with Vinod Sonkar during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.
Fact: The incident in the video is from January 2022 that took place during the Uttar Pradesh state elections. Women protested when Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya visited the home of district panchayat member Poonam Maurya in Sirathu. Her husband, Rajeev Maurya, had gone missing and the women there were protesting police inaction in the matter. When the Maurya arrived, they began raising slogans against him. It is unrelated to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On performing a reverse image search of the viral video, we found a similar video uploaded on the TV9 Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand YouTube channel on 23 January 2022. Its description stated that Keshav Prasad Maurya faced opposition from women in his Sirathu constituency during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Subsequent research led us to the news reports reporting this incident, published in January 2022 (here, here, and here). As per the reports, after announcing his candidacy for the Sirathu assembly seat in the Uttar Pradesh state elections, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya visited Ghulamipur village in Kaushambi district for the first time. When Maurya reached Ghulamipur to meet residents, he visited the home of district panchayat member Poonam Maurya in Sirathu. Her husband, Rajeev Maurya, had gone missing under mysterious circumstances and the women there were protesting police inaction in the matter. When the Maurya arrived, they began raising slogans against him.
Further research on Maurya’s campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections revealed that he held a rally in Sirathu on 15 May 2024, supporting BJP Lok Sabha candidate Vinod Sonkar. However, there are no recent reports of people raising slogans or opposing him during the rally.
To sum up, old 2022 videos of women raising slogans against UP’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya are shared as recent during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
(Disclaimer: This story was originally published by FACTLY, and republished by India TV as part of the Shakti Collective.)
