Old Video of Man Waving Saffron Flag Linked to Raja Singh's Win in Telangana

This video from Telangana dates back to 2016 and is unrelated to BJP leader T Raja Singh.

Fact-check: An old and unrelated video of a man waving a huge flag in Telangana is being falsely linked to T Raja Singh's victory in  Goshamahal.

(Photo: The Quint)

A video showing a man waving a massive saffron-coloured flag on the streets is going viral on the internet.

The claim states that it shows the public celebrating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader T Raja Singh's third consecutive win at the Goshamahal Assembly constituency.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

So what's the truth?: This video is indeed from Telangana but it dates back to 2016.

• It is unrelated to BJP leader T Raja Singh winning a seat at Goshamahal.

• It actually shows a celebration during Ganesh Nimajjam also known as Ganesh Visarjan.

How did we find out the truth?: We divided the viral video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on some of them.

• This led us to an old YouTube video shared on 26 September 2016.

• The channel was run by Ritesh Modi, and the description of the video stated that it shows him waving a 10 m cloth attached to a 20 ft wooden stick in Hyderabad on the occasion of Ganesh Nimajjanam.

• It adds that the flag showed the Hindu deity Hanuman's picture on it.

• Taking a cue, we looked for his profile on Instagram where we found several similar videos of him waving a huge flag.

• We reached out to the user, Ritesh Modi, who dismissed the viral claim.

• Further, he confirmed that this video was shot in Kachiguda during the Ganesh Visarjan ceremony in 2016.

We also found the location: We noticed Kamdhenu Mart and Vamshi Diabetic Clinic at the background in the viral video.

• This led us to Barkatpura Main Road in the Kachiguda suburb of Hyderabad, Telangana, on Google Maps.

Conclusion: An old and unrelated video of a man waving a huge flag in Telangana is being falsely linked to T Raja Singh's victory in Goshamahal.

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