News clip of Andhra politician vowing to demolish new Ambedkar statue is fake

What is the claim?

A purported screenshot of a news report by the Hyderabad-based mobile news app Way2News is being shared on social media platforms. It claims a senior leader of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, stated the newly-inaugurated Ambedkar statue in Vijayawada would be demolished and reconstructed elsewhere, once his party comes to power soon. The title of the article in the screenshot, in Telugu, reads, “We will demolish the Ambedkar statue” (archives here, here, here, and here). 

The claim emerged after the new 206 feet tall BR Ambedkar statue was inaugurated in Vijayawada on January 19, 2023. The statue is known to be the tallest of Ambedkar to date.

Screenshots of the social media post (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, Way2News has not published this report, nor did the TDP leader make such a statement.

What we found

The template seen in the screenshot of the purported article was of Way2News, though the company logo was missing. There are various discrepancies in the viral screenshot. The font of the text in the screenshot differs from the one Way2News uses in their reports. Way2News also links the respective article below the image, but the purported screenshot has no such link. Additionally, the report has no details about the date these alleged comments were purportedly made. 

Discrepancies in the fake article in comparison to the sample article (Source: X/Way2News/Screenshots)

Additionally, Way2News clarified on X (formerly Twitter) on January 19, 2024, that they haven’t published such a report and that it is fake. “Some miscreants are spreading misinformation in #WhatsApp, using our logo, and the 'attached post' has gone viral,” the organization said.

After this claim surfaced, TDP leader Dhulipalla Narendra filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh on January 22, 2024. He claimed that the members of the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, the YSRCP, are spreading misinformation about him, attributing false comments that he never made. 

The verdict

A fabricated news clip has been shared to claim that a leader of the Telugu Desam Party said that once the party is elected to power, they will demolish the recently inaugurated Ambedkar statue in Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.