UP Polls: 5-Year-Old Statement of Shivpal Yadav Shared as Recent

The claim was shared following Akhilesh Yadav's announcement of an alliance with his uncle's party.

Shivpal Singh Yadav's statement in support of Akhilesh Yadav is not a recent one.

(Photo: The Quint)

The screengrab of an ABP News bulletin has gone viral that has a statement made by Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) leader Shivpal Yadav, saying that he is ready to give his blood to Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav if asked.

The claim was shared as a recent one by SP supporters following Akhilesh's announcement of an alliance with his uncle's party.

However, we found that the statement is old and was made back in November 2016.

CLAIM

The screenshot was shared on Twitter by one Satyendra Yadav, whose Twitter bio says he is the state secretary of Mulayam Singh Yadav youth brigade.

Satyendra appreciated Shivpal's statement and said that he is ready to give his life for the latter.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

The screenshot was widely shared on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some of which can be found here, here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The first thing we noticed in the viral screenshot was the ABP News logo. The organisation changed its logo in December 2020 for all its channels and the one seen in the viral image is an old one. That gave us a hint that the bulletin could be old as well.

We then conducted a keyword search for Shivpal's statement using Hindi and English words and found the ABP News bulletin published on its YouTube channel on 5 November 2016.

The viral screenshot can be seen at 2:24 mark.

Viral screenshot seen in the ABP News video.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The speech was from the time when the two had a very public falling out before the 2017 elections that split SP into two factions.

Shivpal was speaking at the SP’s silver jubilee function in Lucknow in 2016 when talked about the sacrifices he had made for the party.

Shivpal said, “Whatever sacrifice you want from me, I will make. If you want my blood, I will give it. I don’t ever want to become chief minister. You can insult me, dismiss me as many times as you want, but I know that I have done good work.”

Akhilesh and Shivpal recently announced their alliance on Thursday, 16 December, ahead of the upcoming 2022 Assembly elections.

Evidently, an old statement made by Shivpal Yadav was shared ahead of the 2022 UP elections as a recent one.

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