Fact Check: Akhilesh Yadav Discussing Alliance With Chandrababu Naidu? No Pic Is Old

Photographs of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu sitting together have been shared with a claim that the two leaders met after the 2024 Indian general election results were declared on June 4. 

The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 seats and the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), led by the Indian National Congress (INC), won 232 seats, according to the Election Commission of India. With neither the BJP nor the INDIA bloc crossing the halfway mark, speculations are rife that the INDIA alliance is making attempts to approach TDP, which won 16 Lok Sabha seats in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and another NDA partner, Janata Dal (United) headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, that won 12 seats out of 40 in the northern state. 

Now, images of Mr Naidu meeting Mr Yadav, whose party is a party of the INDIA bloc, have been shared on social media with the caption, “Akhilesh Yadav met Chandra Babu Naidu. A big game will happen in a few hours…”

Fact Check

However, this photo is from 2019. It has nothing to do with the ongoing discussions to form the government in India. 

Photo 1

We found that the image of Akhilesh Yadav felicitating Naidu with a shawl is from 2019. A reverse image search led us to a report on Rediff published on May 18, 2019, that carried this photo.

Andhra Pradesh CM and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Chief N. Chandrababu Naidu met Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav, in Lucknow, today. pic.twitter.com/ujUgNz6Qfq

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) May 18, 2019

According to this report,  Naidu met Yadav in Lucknow along with Rahul Gandhi of Congress, D. Raja and G Sudhakar Reddy of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Sharad Pawar of the then undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and late Sharad Yadav of Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). The report noted that the meeting was to discuss the formation of a joint anti-BJP front before the election verdict.

Photo 2

The second image of Naidu and Akhilesh Yadav sitting next to each other is also from the same meeting. The photo was shared by Yadav on his official X with the caption, “It is a pleasure to welcome Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri N Chandrababu Naidu Ji to Lucknow.” Naidu was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2019. 

It is a pleasure to welcome Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri N Chandrababu Naidu Ji to Lucknow pic.twitter.com/B2SKJlG5PK

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 18, 2019

At the time, Mr Naidu had quit the NDA and was meeting several Opposition leaders to drum up support to form an anti-BJP alliance. 

It is to be noted that TDP fought the recently held Lok Sabha elections and Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections in an alliance with the BJP and the Jana Sena Party under the NDA.

According to a report in The Hindu, Mr Naidu on June 5 said his party was in NDA and that he would attend the NDA meeting in New Delhi to deliberate on forming the new government at the centre.

There are no reports about Mr Naidu meeting Mr Yadav yesterday or today to discuss an alliance.

The verdict

Images from 2019 of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu meeting Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have been wrongly linked to the Lok Sabha election results. 

(This story was originally published by Logically Facts, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)