A set of two photos of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi interacting with a Delhi University (DU) student and a porter are viral with a false claim that the man is an actor posing as two different individuals.
BOOM found that the two people in the viral photos are different - a Delhi Congress student wing leader and the other a porter at the New Delhi railway station. We also identified the student wing leader as Lokesh Choudhary, Joint Secretary of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), who met Gandhi at the university campus during an interaction with other students.
The photos highlight two people - one wearing a white shirt and the other dressed in the uniform of railway station porters with blue shoes. The claim was posted on X by the account Hindutva Knight (@HPhobiaWatch) with the caption, "US Polo shirt wearing DU student on odd days, Adidas shoe wearing Coolie on even days".
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation posted by the Hindutva Knight handle.
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FACT-CHECK: Rahul Gandhi Interacting With Two People, A DU Student And A Railway Station Porter
BOOM found that the two men highlighted in the viral photo with Rahul Gandhi are different and not the same person.
Image 1 : Rahul Gandhi With Delhi University Students
The first image shows Rahul Gandhi dressed in a blue T-shirt in an interaction with three people. We found that the picture is from Gandhi's interaction with Delhi University students on May 22, 2025.
We identified the encircled student as Lokesh Choudhary, Joint Secretary of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) and a member of the Congress's National Students’ Union of India.
Speaking to BOOM, Choudhary rubbished the claim and confirmed that he is not the man in the second photo. "Rahul Gandhi visited DU in May... the (current) DUSU president is from Congress. Due to security reasons it was a private meeting and only students from the scheduled caste, tribes and other backward classes were allowed," Choudhary said. He also posted the same on X, calling out the viral post.
We also found that the viral photo is a screengrab from a video of the same interaction, uploaded to Gandhi’s official YouTube channel on May 27, 2025.
Image 2: Rahul Gandhi Interacting With New Delhi Railway Station Porters
Reverse image searches showed that the second image is from March 2025, when Gandhi met porters at the New Delhi Railway Station who assisted in rescue operations after February 15 stampede at the location.
The viral photo was posted to Gandhi's X handle on March 5, 2025.
We then compared the facial features of the porter with a clearer picture of Choudhary, and found no similarities"
