Fact-checker: Video showing Yogi Adityanath distributing cash to people is old, taken out of context ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Lok Sabha Election 2019 Fact-checker:

Claim: Yogi Adityanath was distributing money to villagers while campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections

Fact: FALSE. The video was first uploaded in 2012 when Yogi Adityanath was an MP from Gorakhpur. He was reportedly distributing compensation to the farmers whose crops had burnt in a farm fire in the region.

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A video showing Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath seated while an aide distributes money to villagers has resurfaced on social media with a caption that insinuates that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was bribing potential voters with cash.

The video, posted by one Ateeq Khan on the Facebook page ‘I Support Ravish Kumar NDTV’, was shared with the caption, ‘where is the election commissioner of India?’ and re-shared by multiple users making it go viral. However, fact-checking websites de-bunked the claim labelling the allegations as false.

The video is old and has been taken out of context and is being shared again to allege possible ‘cash for votes’ scam, ahead of the general elections.

The Quint got in touch with the user who had uploaded the video – one Vinay Kumar Gautam who clarified that the video is not of Adityanath bribing people for votes, but from when the current chief minister was a Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur. "

In April 2012, several farms in Gorakhpur were burnt. Then the MP from that seat, Adityanath had come forward to give monetary support for farmers whose crops were burnt. He distributed about Rs 1,000 to 2,000 per family, depending on the size of the plot," Gautam told The Quint.