Clipped video shared to claim Congress President Kharge predicts BJP win in upcoming polls

By: Mohammad Salman
February 8 2024

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Screenshots of posts sharing the viral video. (Souce:X/ Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

A video of Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress—India’s principal opposition party— speaking in the Parliament during the ongoing budget session has been shared on social media with the claim that the leader has already accepted defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Social media users have claimed that Kharge said in the Parliament that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will secure more than 400 seats. (A party in India needs at least 272 seats to form the union government.)

In the viral video, Kharge can be heard saying in Hindi, "You have so much majority, now... first it was between 330-334... now it's ‘beyond 400’…" This video has been shared by the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the BJP, as well as multiple cabinet ministers, including Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, and Jyotiraditya M. Scindia. Archived versions of these posts can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

Screenshots of posts sharing the viral video. (Source: X/ Modified by Logically Facts)

However, Kharge’s video has been clipped and shared without full context.  

How did we find the truth?

We checked for Kharge’s full speech video in the Parliament, a part of which is now viral. A video titled “Mallikarjun Kharge’s Remarks | Thanks on the President’s Address” was uploaded on the YouTube channel of Sansad TV, a government-run television channel that broadcasts the proceedings of the Parliament. The video was uploaded on YouTube on February 2 and captures Kharge’s full address.

We found that during a discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, Kharge, who is also the leader of opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house), criticized the BJP government on various issues and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on atrocities against women. In the video, around the 45-minute timestamp, Kharge begins talking about the representation of women. He said that while the BJP had promised “50% reservation,” their government submitted a counter-affidavit on women’s reservation in the Supreme Court.

At the 45:55 mark, Kharge remarks, "You have so much majority, now... first it was between 330-334... now it is ‘beyond 400’...(translated from Hindi)." Kharge was making a reference BJP’s new slogan, “Ab ki baar, 400 ke paar! (This time, we will cross 400).” As soon as he says this, his statement elicits cheering from the treasury benches. We can see in the video that Kharge tries to complete his speech but is interrupted by leaders from the ruling alliance who start laughing. The Congress leader then says that the treasury MPs (members of Parliament) have been elected in Modi’s name, and “all they do is slap the benches.” Meanwhile, Union Minister Piyush Goyal intervenes, saying, "Kharge ji spoke the truth and nothing but the truth." Deputy Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankhar is heard commenting that "Your (Kharge's) statement is being praised...Never a leader of the opposition has been applauded."

Then, Kharge continues in Hindi, "...they are blowing their own trumpets, that they will get 400, 500... brother if you are coming (to power), then why are you not doing all this?” and gestures towards a paper in his hands listing the promises BJP reportedly made. “This time, you won't even cross 100. Not even 100. 'INDIA’ (referring to the Opposition alliance INDIA) is strong (translated)." 

Kharge soon resumes his argument on the representation of women and reservation issues, from where the conversation on securing 400 seats in the upcoming elections started.

It is thus clear that Kharge was questioning the government over women’s reservations while mentioning BJP's "crossing 400" slogan for the upcoming elections. He stated that in the upcoming polls, the ruling party won't even win 100 seats. However, the latter part of his speech is not included in the viral video clip, and a clipped version has been shared to claim that he has already accepted defeat.

The verdict

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s clipped video has gone viral with a false claim that his party has accepted defeat and the leader said that BJP will win 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.

(Translated by Azra Ali)