Old video of woman receiving envelope of money falsely linked to upcoming Karnataka elections

Context

Karnataka state is gearing up for assembly elections scheduled for May 10, and with campaigning on in full swing, parties and supporters are launching social media campaings targeting the opposition.

On April 26, 2023 a user named Gayatri Kachhawa tweeted a video with the claim when translated read: “Note for vote…Karnataka”. The video has 2,58,000 views and more than 3,700 retweets. The video was shared by several users who alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is distributing money in Karnataka for votes ahead of the assembly elections. However, Logically Facts the video has been in circulation since October 2021.

In Fact

The envelope seen in the clip has a photo of a person with BJP's electoral symbol, the lotus. A close look at the video showed that the person on the envelope resembles Eatela Rajender. Eatela Rajender resigned from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), then known as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and joined the BJP in June 2021. His resignation necessitated the by-poll to Huzurabad assembly constituency on October 30, 2021. He contested from BJP for the by-poll to Huzurabad. He is not a leader contesting the elections from Karnataka.

Additionally, the two women in the video are speaking in Telugu, a language spoken predominantly in the south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The woman receiving the envelope is heard saying that she was handed this envelope and was asked how many voters are eligible to vote from her household. She is heard saying that they gave her the envelope when she told them there was one vote and that she was given Rs 10,000 in cash in the form of five Rs 2,000 currency notes.

A Twitter keyword search of possible money distribution by BJP in Telangana showed tweets by Indian National Congress Member of Parliament Manickam Tagore on October 28, 2021. At that time, he was also incharge of the Telangana Congress. He tweeted the same clip with the text alleging that the BJP is distributing cash ahead of the Huzurabad by-elections in Telangana. In a follow-up tweet, he shared another clip of a person opening a similar envelope with money. This envelope had Rajender's photo and the lotus. It also looks the same as the envelope in the clip currently going viral. Tagore tweeted the clip with the text, “@BJP4Delhi distribution of money for votes. #CashForVote” (sic).

This shows that the video is from 2021, and is not a recent video from Karnataka.

The Verdict

A 2021 video of woman counting cash from envelope is being circulated with the claim that the BJP is distributing money ahead of the upcoming Karnataka elections. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.