No, Kumari Selja didn't offer to resign from Congress ahead of Haryana elections

What is the claim?

Ahead of the Haryana Assembly elections on October 5, 2024, a news clip purporting to show Congress leader and Member of Parliament (M.P.) Kumari Selja's resignation has gone viral. The clip is being linked to the upcoming elections.

The viral clip includes an audio segment in Hindi discussing Selja’s resignation (translated): "It is widely known in Haryana's political circles that Hooda has repeatedly humiliated Selja. The biggest proof of this is that Selja's name was missing from the Congress's first candidate list, which only favored Hooda's faction. Selja is upset about this, and her resignation is also believed to be linked to the fact that the candidate list released yesterday included a name involved in the Nuh violence..."

A user on X (formerly Twitter) posted the video with the caption, "Kumari Selja offered her resignation to Sonia Gandhi, upset with Hooda’s dominance in seat distribution." Archived versions of these claims are available here, here, and here.

Screenshots of viral posts. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot)

However, the news clip about Selja’s resignation as Haryana’s party chief is actually from 2022, and its audio has been manipulated to connect it to the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. 

What we found

The clip features the India News logo in the top right corner of the frame, leading us to a longer version of the video on India News Haryana's YouTube channel dated April 11, 2022 (archived here). This original video confirms that Selja offered to resign from her position as Haryana Congress President after meeting senior party leader Sonia Gandhi. 

At the 1:30 mark in the India News video, the voice of political editor Ajit Manjula, who is responding to the anchor’s question, does not match the voice in the viral clip.

Additionally, the content of the commentary differs between the two videos. In the original India News clip, Ajit Manjula talks about internal conflicts within the Haryana Congress. However, the manipulated viral clip's audio falsely discusses Selja’s resignation in connection with the release of Congress's candidate list. This clearly indicates that the audio in the viral clip has been altered.

Media reports from April 2022, including those by News18 Hindi, India Today, and ABP News, covered Kumari Selja’s offer to resign as Haryana Congress President over internal disputes. Selja held the position from 2019 to 2022, and Udai Bhan is the current president of the Haryana Congress.

We spoke to journalist Aadesh Rawal, who has extensively covered the Congress Party. He debunked the claim, stating that no such discussions had taken place within the party.

Congress spokesperson and Haryana Assembly election media coordinator Alok Sharma also confirmed that there is no truth to the claim about Selja’s resignation. He added that the Congress party intends to take action against media outlets spreading such false reports.

The verdict

Our investigation confirms that the viral claim about Kumari Selja's resignation uses a two-year-old news clip with altered audio to falsely link it to the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections.

(Translated by Vanita Ganesh)