Clipped video shared to claim Telangana CM Revanth Reddy criticized Andhra Pradesh politician

What is the claim?

A 15-second video is being shared widely on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook with the claim that the A. Revanth Reddy, chief minister of the south Indian state of Telangana,  is throwing a challenge at and lampooning Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (popularly known as Kodali Nani), a former Andhra Minister and presently a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh. One such post on X has more than 80,000 views, and one on Facebook has more than 300,000 views. Archived versions of these posts and similar others can be seen here, here, and here. 

In the viral video, we can hear Revanth Reddy speaking to the media and saying in Telugu, “It will not be respectable if that person who chews paan masala all the time, like a goat chewing on a banana peel at the banana seller’s cart, talks about me. If he is so interested in crushing something or someone, I ask him to give me the date and time for such an activity.”

Social media users have claimed that Revanth Reddy made the statements about Kodal Nani. These claims are being shared in the light of his recent interview, where he said that when he was elected to be the chief minister, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy did not even make a courtesy call to him. To this statement, YSRCP MLA Kodali Nani retorted that Revanth Reddy was not a ‘patient admitted to a hospital’ for a courtesy call to be made to him. Now, Reddy’s video is being shared as his response to Nani.

Screenshots of the viral post on social media. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, a clipped 2023 video of Revanth Reddy has been shared as a recent response to Nani.

What did we find?

We found that an old video of Revanth Reddy speaking to the press about Talasani Srinivas Yadav, a former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) minister, has been clipped and falsely shared as a response of the Congress leader to Kodali Nani. Srinivas Yadava served as the Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, and Cinematography in the previous BRS-led Telangana government till December 2023.

A reverse image search of the keyframes of the video led us to the longer video of Reddy speaking to the media. Various Telugu news channels such as V6 News, NTV, and Zee News Telugu had uploaded the video of the press meet on their YouTube channels in May 2023 when Reddy was an Opposition leader and hadn’t become the chief minister. Reddy, who was the chief of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) at that time had also mentioned Srinivas Yadav’s name in his remarks to the media.

In the video of the meeting uploaded by V6 News on May 10, 2023, we can hear Revanth Reddy saying in Telugu, “It looks like Srinivas Yadav has the habit of crushing since childhood. …As he has a lot of experience crushing dung, he is talking about crushing. Forget about crushing; Srinivas Yadav should first stop chewing paan masala. As elected representatives, we should be a role model for people. It will not be respectable if that person who always chews paan masala, like a goat chewing on a banana peel at the banana seller’s cart, talks about me. If he is so interested in crushing something or someone, I ask him to give me the date and time for such an activity. The minister should mind his words.” The now-viral video runs from the 00:48 mark to the 01:03 mark in the V6 video. 

In the video uploaded by N TV News, the viral clip runs from the 1:20 mark. 

At the time, Reddy was responding to comments Srinivas Yadav had made a day earlier. Yadav was criticizing the six guarantees Congress had declared ahead of the 2023 assembly elections in the state. Mocking Reveanth’s height, Yadav had said, “He will die if I crush him enough. He has no respect for our authority, be it an MLA or a Minister. He punches way beyond his height.” 

The verdict

A video of Revanth Reddy from May 2023, when he was the Telangana Congress chief, responding to comments made by a former Minister in the BRS government has been shared as the former’s recent remarks against a YSRCP MLA in Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.