Bengaluru, TNI Bureau: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, DK Shivakumar, has become the target of a false claim that he was in an inebriated state during a recent political campaign. A video showing Shivakumar walking unsteadily during the Mekedatu Padayatre in Karnataka has been circulating on social media with captions making fun of his purported state of inebriation.
However, fact-checking agency BOOM has confirmed that the video is from January 2022, and that it shows Shivakumar as tired rather than drunk. The Congress had organized the Mekedatu Padayatra to demand the implementation of the Mekedatu reservoir project across the Cauvery River, despite COVID-19 restrictions. Reports suggest that Shivakumar faced FIRs for violating COVID rules during the march.
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BOOM team upon reserach found that the original videos was uploaded by Karnataka-based news outlet NewsFirst Kannada with the caption, DK Shivakumar: ಸುಸ್ತಾಗಿ ತಟ್ಟಾಡಿದ ಡಿಕೆಶಿ | Mekedatu Padayatre | NewsFirst Kannada.” This translates to, “DK Shivakumar is tired.”
(1) DK Shivakumar : ಸುಸ್ತಾಗಿ ತಟ್ಟಾಡಿದ ಡಿಕೆಶಿ | Mekedatu Padayatre | NewsFirst Kannada – YouTube
However, BOOM was unable to verify whether Shivakumar was drunk during the video, but it is worth noting that in June 2021, a video of former Lok Sabha MP VS Ugrappa and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee media coordinator MA Salim allegedly discussing a “scandal” involving Shivakumar surfaced. In the video, Ugrappa and Salim accused Shivakumar of taking bribes and slurring his speech as if he was drunk.
The upcoming Karnataka assembly elections have added to the controversy, with some social media users using the video to ridicule the Congress party for considering Shivakumar as a chief ministerial candidate. Karnataka will go to the polls on May 10 in a single-phased assembly election.