Fact-Check: Video of Hardik Patel Vowing to Not Vote For BJP In Gujarat is Old

The video is from 2017 when Hardik Patel was campaigning against the BJP.

Fact-Check | This video of Hardik Patel asking to not vote for the  BJP is five years old.

(Photo: The Quint)

As the polling for Gujarat Assembly Elections begins, several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have shared a video of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Gujarat leader Hardik Patel, where he can be seen asking people to vow against voting for the BJP.

What is the claim?: AAP members Naresh Balyan and Vanshraj Dubey shared the video with a caption, "Big ruckus in BJP before Gujarat elections. Hardik Patel swore by his "Kul Devta" (ancestors) that he should not vote for BJP. They have tortured our people. Have committed murders."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Archives of more such posts can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: The video is five years old and showed Patel's speech ahead of the previous Assembly elections, which were held in December 2017.

How did we find that out?:

• We conducted a keyword search for the "જન સંકલ્પ સભા" (Jan Sankalp Sabha), which was written on the stage where Patel was delivering his speech.

• We found the original video on Patel's official Facebook page, posted on 7 December 2017.

A link to the post can be found here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

• At around the 1:00:00 mark, we see the part that of the video going viral.

• This shows that the speech was not recent but old.

Who is Hardik Patel?:

• Hardik Patel was a Patidar leader who rose to prominence in 2015, where he led the Patidar reservation protests in Gujarat.

• Patel was a leader of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) and joined the Congress in 2019 and quit the party earlier this year, in June, to join the BJP.

• Patel is contesting from the Viramgam constituency on a BJP ticket.

Conclusion: A five-year-old video was shared to falsely claim that the BJP Gujarat leader was campaigning against his own party.

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