Dubbaka Bypolls: Old Video Of TRS Workers Distributing Money Revived

A video from January of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) members distributing money during local municipal elections in Sathupally town has been revived claiming it shows voters being bribed in Dubbakka, for the bypolls to be held in the area on November 3, 2020.

The video has been shared by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Telangana claiming TRS is paying people in a bid to gain votes in the Dubbaka by elections. The town went to bypolls on Tuesday, necessiated after the death of MLA Ramalinga Reddy. The otherwise nondescripit town has seen high voltage campaigning by both TRS and BJP leaders, with senior TRS members led by state finance minister Harish Rao leading the campaign for candidate Solipeta Sujata, wife of the deceased MLA Reddy. Sujata is standing against BJP candidate Raghunandan Rao, interestingly a former key TRS leader.

The video from January was revived on Twitter by N Ramchander Rao, BJP city leader and MLC who shared it claiming it shows, "TRS upto its real colour"

It was further shared by Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir as, "TRS leaders distributing money among voters in Dubbak by-elections. Will Election Commission of India take some action or remain a mute spectator?"

FACT CHECK

A simple keyword search for 'TRS workers distributing money + election' in Telugu showed news results from January 2020, when the party workers distributed money to voters in Sathupalli town before the municipal elections.

A video uploaded on YouTube on January 21, 2020 by a local channel, CVR News showed the same video from the counter of 15 seconds. The video descriptions says, "TRS Leaders Distributing Money for Municipal Elections at Sathupalli"

We then ran a search for news articles about the same incident and found an article on NTV News with a screengrab from the same video. The article said a man allegedly identified as Hanuman, a ward candidate was caught on camera distributing money to voters. Read here