Manoj Tiwari is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the North-East Delhi constituency, where he is currently the Member of Parliament. The constituency voted on May 25, with Tiwari facing Kanhaiya Kumar, a Congress leader and former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, among other candidates.
Amidst this, a video featuring Manoj Tiwari is being circulated on social media platforms, claiming that the BJP leader has conceded defeat to the Congress candidate. The video includes a Hindi text overlay that translates to, “Manoj Tiwari has accepted his defeat.” In the 11-second clip, Tiwari, seated in a moving car, says, “Look, I was aware of my defeat, but the sad thing was that I had been winning for a long time, and then I felt like I was about to lose.”
The Facebook post reads: “नचनिया ने तो चुनाव से पहले ही हार मान ली, ऐसे कैसे होगा 400 पार? भाई Kanhaiya Kumar का जलवा है🔥”.
The above post can be seen here. (Archive)
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post, and found it to be false.
Noticing the ‘Jist’ watermark in the viral video, the NM team tracked down its extended version on the Jist YouTube channel, uploaded on March 31, 2024, with a title: “I Spent A Day With Manoj Tiwari To Discuss Pyar, Cricket, Rahul Gandhi, Modi & Kejriwal | Part-1.” The segment used in the viral clip appears between the 34:04 and 34:14 timestamps.
In the video, he can be seen interacting with a journalist, and around the 28-minute mark, Tiwari delves into the 2009 General elections. He was initially unaffiliated with any party and even campaigned for money for his now-rival Congress in Lucknow. He recounts how Amar Singh, a politician and general secretary of the Samajwadi Party (SP), brought him into the party.
At around the 31:10 mark, he also says that despite initial hesitation, he agreed to contest the election as an SP candidate after being urged by Amar Singh at a gathering that included actor Amitabh Bachchan and businessman Anil Ambani. Tiwari recalls his hesitance to contest the 2009 elections against BJP leader Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur due to his past affiliation with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP. He narrates an incident where he fled to Mumbai during the campaign to avoid facing Adityanath and the fear of inevitable defeat, only to be apprehended and returned.
Around the 34:04 mark, Tiwari says, “Look, I was aware of my defeat, but the sad thing was that I had been winning for a long time; I felt like I was about to lose,” adding: “But even in that defeat, there was a victory because of Yogi Adityanath, who stood for Hindu culture, civilization, and Sanatan culture…. We didn’t know that Narendra Modi would become the country’s prime minister at the time. I’m talking about 2009. In 2009, you could see there was a situation of complete political instability throughout the country.” This context, where it is clear he was referring to the 2009 elections, has been omitted from the viral clip to make it appear as though he conceded defeat in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Regarding the 2009 General elections, the actor-turned-politician began his political career in Gorakhpur when he ran as a candidate for the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. He contested against Yogi Adityanath, who has represented Gorakhpur in Parliament since 1998. However, Tiwari was unsuccessful, securing around 83,000 votes. Yogi Adityanath garnered over 400,000 votes, and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Vinay Shankar Tiwari received 182,000 votes. Tiwari first won a Lok Sabha seat in 2014 after joining the BJP.
Hence, the cropped video has been shared out of context to falsely claim that he has conceded defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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