2019 video from J&K shared as celebrations in Pakistan over Modi's Lok Sabha poll win

By: Tahil Ali
June 5 2024

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Screenshots of social media posts that claim people of Balochistan, Pakistan are celebrating Modi’s victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

Several social media users are sharing a video of people raising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flag and chanting slogans in favor of the party and BJP leader, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Captions claim this video is from Pakistan and shows people in Balochistan celebrating Modi’s victory in the 2024 Indian general elections.

One user on X (formerly Twitter) posted the video with the caption, “After POK, the successful Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is getting support from Balochistan as well. The people of Balochistan are waving the BJP flag. #Modimay #ModiHaiThoMumkinHai #SahyogModi #POK #POK_भारत_का_है #balochistan (Translated from Hindi)." 

Another X user claimed Modi's win is being celebrated in every corner of Balochistan, Pakistan, and that the support for BJP will disturb the Opposition and dissent groups.

Social media users posted a video claiming that the people of Balochistan, Pakistan are celebrating Modi’s victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections (Source: X / Modified by Logically Facts).

These videos and claims were found on X and YouTube. Archives of these posts are available here, here, here, and here.

These claims surfaced on the day of the last phase of voting for India’s seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on June 1, 2024, and were shared amid exit polls predicting a landslide victory for the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). On June 4, after the votes were counted, the BJP won 240 seats, while the NDA secured 292 seats. Modi won the election from the constituency of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

However, upon investigation, we discovered that the video actually shows a crowd cheering for BJP candidate Sofi Yousuf during his nomination filing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the Anantnag district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

What did we find?

By conducting a reverse image search on keyframes from the video, we discovered a video (archived here) posted on the official X account of Sofi Yousuf, the BJP Vice President for J&K. This video, shared on March 30, 2019, was captioned to indicate it was recorded when Yousuf was filing his nomination papers for the 2019 Indian general election. The footage in this clip matches scenes from the 0:50 timestamp of the viral video, showing a man leading slogans.

The official X account of BJP Jammu & Kashmir also posted a similar video (archived here) of Yousuf filing his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections on March 31, 2019. This video, which shows him accompanied by many party supporters, also resembles footage from the second part of the viral video.

The caption reads, "#PhirEkBaarModiSarkar Modi Modi in Anantnag. Amid sloganeering, BJP's Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency candidate Sh. Sofi Yousuf, accompanied by thousands of supporters including women, files nomination papers in Anantnag."

Both videos feature similar slogans in Urdu and Kashmiri, such as "Jeet hamari, In Sha Allah (Victory will be ours, god willing), "Bharatiya Janata Party zindabad (Long live Bharatiya Janata Party)," and "BJP’ yuk fouj haiy aaw (Army of BJP has come)," along with other pro-BJP, Modi, and Yousuf chants.

Screenshots of the viral video and the one posted by Sofi Yousuf. (Source: X/Sofi Yousuf/Modified by Logically Facts).

In both videos, the BJP flag is visible in the background, along with the same green-colored house. A man in blue attire leads the slogans, while a person wearing a Modi mask appears throughout both the viral and original clips.

Yousuf is identifiable in both videos, walking through the crowd in front of the BJP flag and wearing a multicolored garland. He appears in various instances of the viral video (0:02 to 0:32) and the original video (0:08 to 0:18).

Screenshot from the viral and original video in which Sofi Yousuf can be seen walking in the middle of the crowd (Source: X / Sofi Yousuf / Modified by Logically Facts).

Keyword searches led us to reports by several local media outlets about Yousuf filing his nomination papers on March 30, 2019. A video report by Excelsior News (archived here), titled "Anantnag: BJP candidate Sofi Yousuf files nomination for LS elections," features footage similar to the first part of the viral video. At the 0:17 mark, the same women can be seen walking down a road, raising the same chants. The individual in the Modi mask and the man in blue leading the slogans also appear in this video.

J&K election results

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and the J&K-based party National Conference each secured three out of six seats in J&K (including Ladakh). National Conference's Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi secured a seat by defeating Yousuf and the People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti in the Anantnag constituency.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and NC each secured two seats out of five, with both former J&K CMs, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, conceding defeat. Abdul Rashid Sheikh, an independent candidate currently in prison under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in Delhi’s Tihar, won in north Kashmir’s Baramulla.

Notably, the BJP chose not to nominate candidates for three Parliamentary seats in Kashmir during the 2024 elections.

The verdict

The video claiming to show people in Balochistan, Pakistan, celebrating Modi’s victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha election is misleading. The original video is from Anantnag, Jammu & Kashmir, where Sofi Yousuf, a BJP candidate, was filing his nomination papers for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, accompanied by party workers chanting pro-BJP slogans. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.