2018 video shared as Congress conceding defeat to BRS in 2023 Telangana elections

Context

Legislative Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled for November 30, 2023, with results expected on December 3, 2023. Ahead of the polling, a video of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Revanth Reddy is circulating online. It claims that the Congress has admitted defeat to the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) before the elections.

An X (formerly Twitter) post dated November 25, 2023, carries the video with the caption: “Tiger Revanth Reddy, who already admitted the defeat of Congress. Tiger Reddy admitted that the people of Telangana are with KCR #VoteForCar #OnceAgainKCR (translated from Telugu).”

In the video, Reddy states, “According to initial trends, it seems people favor TRS. Regardless of the results, the Congress party will continue to fight for people's issues responsibly (translated from Telugu).” The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), now BRS, is led by incumbent Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. An archived version of the post can be found here.

(Screenshot of the viral video. Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this claim is misleading. The video of Reddy is from the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections and not related to the upcoming elections.

Here are the facts

A reverse image search of a keyframe from the video led us to a longer version on the official YouTube channel of ABN Telugu, dated December 11, 2018. Titled “Revanth Reddy Speaks To Media After Election Results | Telangana Elections 2018 | ABN Telugu,” the viral clip appears at the 1:21-minute mark, where Reddy discusses the 2018 election defeat and mentions great leaders who triumphed after losses.

V6 News Telugu, another local news channel, posted the longer version of the video on December 11, 2018. The viral clip can be found at the 1:21 minute timestamp. YoYo TV Channel, a Telugu news channel, also posted the video.

2018 Telangana elections

The 2018 Telangana elections took place on December 7, 2018, with results announced on December 11, 2018. The TRS won 88 of the 119 seats. Reddy, representing Congress, lost the Kodangal constituency to TRS candidate Narender Reddy by over 10,000 votes.

The verdict

The video of Revanth Reddy speaking about the Congress’ defeat to the BRS (then known as TRS) and his loss in the election is from 2018, not from 2023. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.