Viral Nitish-Lalu meeting video is from 2022; ‘political game-changer’ speculation baseless

Three days after RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav had met Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar at the state secretariat, a video clip of Kumar meeting RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at the latter’s residence in the presence of Tejaswi Yadav and Rabri Devi is being circulated on social media.

The supposed recent meeting between the two party supremos is being dubbed as a probable game-changer in national politics since the NDA government is dependent on the Nitish-led JD(U)’s support and RJD is a part of the Opposition alliance.

X (formerly Twitter) user Shailendra Yadav (@ShailendraA2Y), who describes himself as a freelance journalist, shared the video on September 5, 2024, claiming that the incident took place “today”. What he wrote in Hindi can be loosely translated as “The game is on in Bihar.” (Archive)

बिहार में खेला होने की संभावनाएं बढ़ती जा रही हैं।

आज नीतिश कुमार जी और लालू यादव जी के आवास पर मुलाकात करने पहुंचे।

3-4 दिन के अंदर नीतिश जी और तेजस्वी जी की ये दूसरी मुलाकात है। pic.twitter.com/jxTm83jdwN

— Shailendra Yadav (@ShailendraA2Y) September 5, 2024

The X handle Dhruv Rathee (Parody) (@dhruvrahtee) also shared the video. He claimed the meeting took place on September 5. (Archive)

Today, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav met at their residences.

This is the second meeting between Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav in the last 3-4 days.

Khela Hobe 🔥 pic.twitter.com/yDkMcfyFHT

— Dhruv Rathee (Parody) (@dhruvrahtee) September 5, 2024

The same video was also tweeted by user Dinesh Kumar (@DineshKumarLive) (Archive)

Fact Check

After breaking down the video into multiple keyframes, we ran reverse image searches, which led us to a two-year-old YouTube video uploaded by the OTV or OdishaTV on September 5, 2022, which contained the same visuals as the viral clip.

Further, a relevant keyword search led us to a tweet by news agency ANI (@ANI) from September 5, 2022. It said that Nitish Kumar had met RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at latter’s residence.

Patna: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar met RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at latter’s residence, in the presence of Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and Rabri Devi

Nitish Kumar will be visiting Delhi today pic.twitter.com/9ViVFiO268

— ANI (@ANI) September 5, 2022

As readers can see, the photos in the tweet match the visuals in the viral video. Comparison below:

We also found a news report from September 5, 2022 by ANI which states, “Patna (Bihar) [India], September 5 (ANI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at the latter’s residence in Patna, in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav and former CM Rabri Devi.”

Hence, from the above findings, it is clear that the video clip is not a recent one, rather it dates back to September 2022 when Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar called on Lalu Prasad Yadav at the latter’s residence. The claims by different social media users that the meeting is recent and hence potentially game-changing are false.

Incidentally, on Friday, September 6, 2024, Nitish Kumar rubbished speculation about his joining hands with the RJD again and said that he had “made a mistake twice” and would not repeat it, The Hindu reported.

Ankita Mahalanobish is an intern at Alt News.

Related