An 18-second clip is viral on social media where supporters and workers of the Samajwadi party can be seen walking while raising slogans. It is claimed that one of the supporters had raised the 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogan.
Andhra Pradesh BJP state vice president Vishnu Vardhan Reddy shared the above-mentioned clip on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: Pakistan Zindabad' slogans were raised by Samajwadi Party leaders and workers in Azamgarh, UP. The INDI Alliance and its never-ending love for #Pakistan!"
His tweet has received over 1.5 lakh views and has been retweeted over 800 times.
In a public meeting on May 8 at Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, Union home minister Amit Shah reiterated the above claim. The part of his speech where he claims about Samajwadi party workers chanting 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans has been shared by the BJP's official X page.
Propaganda outlet OpIndia and Hindi media outlet Punjab Kesari published reports regarding the viral video with the above claim.
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Several other social media users shared the same clip claiming that 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans were raised by SP workers.
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Fact Check
On running a relevant keyword search in Hindi, we came across several reports related to the viral video. As per a Dainik Bhaskar report, the incident occurred in the Mubarakpur area in Azamgarh of Uttar Pradesh at a rally where Akhilesh Yadav was campaigning for SP Lok Sabha candidate Dharmendra Yadav. The report further mentioned that the actual slogan raised was 'cycle nishaan' (cycle symbol) zindabad.
A Bicycle is the official symbol of the Samajwadi Party.
Alt News reached out to SP (City) Azamgarh Shailendra Lal who had said on May 7 that an investigation had been launched to check the authenticity of the video. He confirmed that the claim that the 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogan had been raised was false. People present in the rally had actually raised the slogan 'Cycle Nishaan Zindabad'.
Further, we slowed down the audio of the relevant part of the viral clip and one can clearly hear that the party worker said 'Cycle Nishaan' or 'Cycle Nisaan'.
Hence, the claim that 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans were raised in a Samajwadi Party rally in Azamgarh is false.
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