Did News24 predict Lok Sabha win for INDIA bloc in Delhi? No, viral video is fake!

What is the claim?

A video circulating on social media allegedly shows Indian news anchor Manak Gupta of News24 stating that the INDIA bloc has an advantage in Delhi amid the ongoing 2024 Indian general election.

In the clip, Gupta supposedly cites an opinion poll by Today’s Chanakya, predicting that the INDIA bloc—an alliance of the main opposition parties in India—will win six out of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. The video also appears to claim that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Mahabal Mishra is likely to win from the West Delhi constituency.

The video has been shared with captions like, “सबसे बड़े मीडिया TV टूडे चाणक्य के सर्वे में महाबल मिश्रा की साफ लहर दिखाई दे रही हैं। ऐसा लगता है की महाबल मिश्रा 5 लाख वोटो से जीतेंगे। (Translation: The biggest media TV Today’s Chanakya’s survey shows a clear Mahabal Mishra wave. It seems like Mahabal Mishra will win by 500,000 votes)." An archived version of one such post can be found here.

Posts claiming Today’s Chanakya opinion poll has shown that INDIA has an advantage in Delhi. (Source:@aap_westdelhi/X, Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

We investigated the authenticity of this video and found that the audio has been artificially generated, and the graphics projecting the opinion poll results are fabricated. In the original video, Gupta did not report on any such opinion poll.

What is the truth?

Upon examination, we noted that while the voice in the viral video closely resembles Gupta's, his mouth movements do not align with the audio, indicating manipulation.

The original video, identified by Gupta’s attire, was from an episode of the news show "Rashtra ki Baat," posted on News24’s YouTube channel on March 29, 2024. At the beginning of this video, Gupta says, “Namaskar, you’re watching ‘Rashtra ki Baat’ and I am Manak Gupta with you. Today, both good and bad news has come out of two states together for the INDIA alliance.” His mouth movements match those in the viral clip, confirming the source of the viral footage. 

At the 0:28 mark of the viral video, Gupta raises his finger while looking at his laptop. This exact moment occurs at 0:46 in the original video, where he discusses INDIA’s seat-sharing formula in Bihar, mentioning that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will contest 26 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats.

The fabricated graphics shown in the viral video do not appear in the original YouTube footage, and no such report by News24 was found, indicating that the slides were faked.

Gupta also addressed the issue on X (formerly Twitter), stating in Hindi, “This video of mine which is going viral is completely fake. My video has been taken from my show 'Rashtra Ki Baat' and my AI-generated voice has been inserted in it. All the graphics are also fake.”

Additionally, Today’s Chanakya confirmed via their official X account that they have not released any opinion polls for Delhi or any other state.

Today's Chanakya's X post. (Source: @TodaysChanakya/X)

What did deepfake detection tools say?

The Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), of which Logically Facts is a part, is a specialized team of the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), which combats AI-generated misinformation. The DAU analyzed the video using two deepfake detection tools.

According to them, Hive AI indicated AI manipulation in the close-up of the anchor’s face, while their audio tool detected segments of generated speech.

Further, TrueMedia’s deepfake detector analyzed the video and concluded there was a very high probability of manipulation. The tool gave it a 95 percent confidence score for “AI-generated audio detection” and a 90 percent confidence score for “face manipulation,” suggesting visual tampering using artificial intelligence.

The verdict

The video is a fabrication. Graphics and audio have been artificially created to misrepresent Manak Gupta’s broadcast as predicting a win for the INDIA bloc in Delhi. Both Gupta and Today’s Chanakya have debunked the claims, and independent analysis confirms the video is fake.