New Delhi (Vaidehi Jahagirdar/Abhinav Gupta PTI Fact Check): A video of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal was recently shared on social media, with users claiming it showed him criticising Delhi Chief Minister Atishi. The video showed Kejriwal allegedly slamming Atishi for not doing any work in his absence (referring to the time he was in prison). However, the PTI Fact Check Desk, in its investigation, found that a clipped video was shared on social media with a false claim. In the original video, Kejriwal criticised BJP’s Vishwas Nagar MLA Om Prakash Sharma, stating that he had not done any work in his constituency in the past 10 years.
The video has been shared amid the heightened social media campaigns run by the political parties ahead of Assembly polls in the national capital, scheduled to be held on 5 February.
Claim
An X (formerly Twitter) user shared on 20 January a video claiming it showed Arvind Kejriwal criticising Delhi Chief Minister Atishi for not doing any work in his absence.
The user shared the video with the caption, “That means Kejriwal is clearly saying that in my absence, Chief Minister Atishi Marlena did not do any work. Atishi Marlena is useless; the entire government of Delhi is useless. When Kejriwal himself is admitting that Aam Aadmi Party cannot work, then the people of Delhi should not vote for Aam Aadmi Party.”
Here is the link and archive link to the post, and below is a screenshot of the same.
Investigation
The Desk ran the video through the InVid tool search and found a few keyframes. On running one of the keyframes through Google Lens, the Desk came across a video posted by the AAP on its official YouTube channel on 20 January, 2025. The title of the video read, “Arvind Kejriwal’s public meeting in Vishwas Nagar | Delhi Elections 2025 | AAP Delhi.”
Below is the link and screenshot of the YouTube video.
The Desk noticed that this was an extended version of the video shared on social media, as can also be seen in the comparison below:
In the next part of investigation, the Desk carefully analysed the video. At 25:50 timestamp, it found the same clip that was shared on social media.
The clipping showed Kejriwal stating, “I just came to know, there is a water problem in every colony…is it or not? There is a sewer problem in every colony…is it or not? The roads are broken…is it or not? There is filth all around…isn’t it?”
However, going through the extended part of the video, it became clearly evident that the dig by Kejriwal was directed towards BJP’s sitting MLA from Vishwas Nagar constituency, Om Prakash Sharma. Prior to making the above statement, Kejriwal was making a reference to Sharma, where he stated, “Sharma fought a lot with us for 10 years but did not do any work. Am I wrong?”
The same part can be seen at the 25:28-second timestamp.
Subsequently, the Desk concluded that a selected portion of Arvind Kejriwal’s address at a public rally in Delhi’s Vishwas Nagar area was clipped and shared on social media with a false claim.
This story was originally published by PTI Fact Check as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.
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