A video of Union Minister Rajnath Singh is being shared on social media with a claim suggesting that he praised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the issue of ‘vote theft,’ calling him the ‘finisher’ of politics.
In the video, Rajnath Singh is heard saying, “Brothers and sisters, I have reached this conclusion. Who is the most famous finisher in cricket? I want to ask you. Youngsters, tell me — who is cricket’s most renowned finisher? Dhoni. So if someone asks us who is the foremost finisher in Indian politics, it’s Rahul Gandhi.”
The video is shared with a text on it that reads, “Rajnath admits Rahul Gandhi is like MS Dhoni. Hints that he will finish off vote theft.”
The video was shared with the caption, “Rajnath Singh ji has already reached a conclusion. He has admitted that the finisher of politics is Rahul Gandhi.”
The claim is false. The video is old and edited. In the original video, Rajnath Singh said, “Rahul Gandhi is the ‘ultimate finisher’ of Indian politics, because under his leadership the Congress has been continuously shrinking.”
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared on Rajnath Singh’s YouTube channel on April 6, 2024.
In the video, at the 16:20 minute mark, we can hear Rajnath Singh saying, “...wherever Congress came, corruption followed. That’s the reality. And Congress has been wiped out across the country. You’ve seen how dominant Congress once was in India’s politics. In most states, if any party was in power, it was Congress. But now, Congress is disappearing. Only in a few, small States does it still hold power. That’s the situation.”
He further said, “I often ask myself why this is happening. Brothers and sisters, I’ve come to this conclusion. Who is the most famous ‘finisher’ in cricket? Let me ask you. Young people—tell me—isn’t Dhoni the most celebrated finisher in cricket? So if someone asks who is the top finisher in Indian politics is, we’d say it’s Rahul Gandhi.”
He further said, “This is exactly why so many leaders are leaving Congress.” He later appealed to people to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His speech was also reported by Dainik Jagran on April 7, 2024.
What is Rahul Gandhi’s vote chori campaign?
The campaign alleged systemic electoral fraud—duplicate voters, invalid addresses, bulk registrations, destroyed CCTV footage and added ‘mystery voters.’ He accused the Election Commission and the BJP of collusion.
Since Rahul Gandhi launched his ‘vote chori’ campaign on August 7, we can conclude that the video is old.
Thus, we can ascertain that the video is old.
