Fact Check: Old Video Of Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee Getting Emotional During Durga Puja Shared With False Claim

Fact Check: The video of Kalyan Banerjee being widely shared is from 2021, and shows the TMC leader getting emotional during Durga Puja celebration in Bengal.

Screenshots from X posts shared with a false claim.

Fact Check: A video showing Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee being overwhelmed with emotion is being shared on social media, amid the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The video is being shared with a false claim that it shows his reaction to tough competition in the elections. The video is actually from 2021, and shows Banerjee during a Durga Puja celebration.

What are users saying?: The video is being shared to claim that it shows Banerjee's state after seeing competition from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate, Dipsita Dhar in the Serampore constituency in West Bengal.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot) 

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: The claim is false as this video is from 2021.

It shows the TMC leader filled with emotion during a neighbourhood puja during Durga Puja.

How did we find out?: We broke down the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

We came across the same video on New18Bangla's YouTube channel from 14 October 2021.

It was uploaded with the title - "TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee moved tears to Aarti dance, Parar Puja."

Here are the similarities between the clips. (Source: Altered by The Quint) 

The description read, "Puja means emotion and Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee floated with that emotion at the puja in his neighbourhood. Kalyan Banerjee cried while doing the puja."

Other news outlets such as TV9 Bangla, ETV Bharat West Bengal and Zee 24 Ghanta also reported on this incident.

Conclusion: Clearly, an old video of TMC's Kalyan Banerjee is being shared with false claims.

This story was originally published by The Quint, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline, excerpt, and the opening introduction para, this story has not been edited by ABPLIVE staff.