Video from Brazil shared as Akhilesh Yadav’s election rally in India's Uttar Pradesh

What's being claimed?

A video depicting an aerial view of a large crowd gathered in the streets at night has been widely shared on social media platforms. The claim is that it captures an election rally conducted by Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in 2024 in Uttar Pradesh.

The video, originally shared on Instagram, includes the caption: “Respected National President Akhilesh Yadav Bhaiya, the love and trust of the people of Azamgarh is making the INDIA alliance win (translated from Hindi)." The text overlaid on the video reads, “Akhilesh bhaiya (elder brother)."

The polling for the Azamgarh constituency in Uttar Pradesh took place on May 25, 2024. Dharmendra Yadav was the Samajwadi Party contestant from Azamgarh.

Archived versions of the post and similar content can be found here, here, and here.

Screenshot of the viral video circulating online. (Source: Instagram/YouTube/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim that the video shows visuals from Akhilesh Yadav’s election rally is false. The video actually depicts a crowd gathered at the Micareta de Feira de Santana carnival held in April in Brazil. It is unrelated to the Indian general elections.

Here are the facts

Through a reverse image search, we found the same video shared on the official Instagram account of Bell Marques, a Brazilian singer, on April 19, 2024 (archived here). The caption reads, “Real time in Feira de Santana - Bahia!!! #MicaretaDeFeira (Translated from Portuguese).” 

Taking a cue from this, we searched for “Micareta De Feira” and found that the same video was shared on the Instagram account “micaretadefeira.oficial” (archived here) on April 19, 2024. Additionally, the screengrabs from the video were published in a news report on Micareta De Feira's website. 

Micareta De Feira is a fair or carnival celebrated in Brazil since 1937. Folk groups and musical bands participate in the parade, and several dance performances and other cultural activities are conducted during this festival.

According to reports, the carnival Micareta de Feira de Santana 2024 took place from April 17 to April 22, 2024, and saw almost two million participants. "Micareta de Feira de Santana 2024 was a real success! We exceeded all expectations and proved once again that our party is one of the biggest and best in Brazil," the Secretary of Culture, Jairo Carneiro, was quoted as saying.  

The verdict

A two-month-old video of a carnival festival in Brazil was misrepresented as visuals from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s election rally. However, it is unrelated to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.