The old footage becomes new evidence of an old pattern
In the charged aftermath of India's 2024 general elections, a video spread across social media claiming Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had abandoned his alliance with the BJP, supposedly paving the way for Rahul Gandhi to become Prime Minister. India TV's investigation revealed the footage was not new at all — it originated from August 2022, documenting a political shift that had long since passed. The episode illustrates how misinformation need not be technically sophisticated to be effective; it requires only the removal of context and the exploitation of a public figure's known history to make the implausible feel inevitable.
- A viral video falsely framed as breaking news claimed Nitish Kumar had switched political alliances, threatening to destabilize public understanding of India's fragile post-election coalition government.
- The footage was stripped of its original 2022 timestamp and repackaged with new captions designed to feel urgent, exploiting Kumar's well-documented history of shifting allegiances to make the lie feel credible.
- India TV traced the clip to a News 24 YouTube upload from August 9, 2022 — a period when Kumar genuinely did leave the BJP — exposing the deception through basic source verification.
- Despite the debunking, the video continues to circulate, and the correction will never reach every viewer who encountered the original false claim.
- The incident underscores how election cycles create fertile ground for low-tech misinformation: no deepfakes required, only old footage, new captions, and an audience that rarely checks dates.
A video circulating widely on social media carried a striking claim: Nitish Kumar, Bihar's Chief Minister, had once again abandoned the BJP, and Rahul Gandhi was poised to become Prime Minister. The captions leaned into Kumar's reputation for political fluidity — "Isn't it surprising? Nitish Ji, have you changed sides again?" — making the false claim feel like confirmation of something viewers already half-suspected.
India TV's investigation dismantled the narrative quickly. The footage traced back to News 24's YouTube channel, uploaded on August 9, 2022 — nearly two years before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It documented a real event from that time: Kumar's genuine departure from the BJP to join the Mahagathbandhan opposition coalition. Someone had extracted the clip, erased its temporal context, and redeployed it as fresh news.
The timing was deliberate and damaging. The 2024 elections had produced no outright majority, leaving the BJP reliant on coalition partners including Kumar's Janata Dal-United and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party. In that fragile moment, a video suggesting Kumar had defected carried real potential to sow confusion about who actually held power.
No new statement from Kumar existed. No realignment had occurred. The entire story was built from old footage and new captions — a simple technique, but effective in an environment where most viewers do not verify sources or check dates. The fact-check confirmed Kumar remains within the NDA coalition. Yet the video, once released into circulation, carries on — and for some who encounter it, the correction will arrive too late, if at all.
A video has been circulating across social media platforms with a straightforward claim: Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, has abandoned his alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. According to the captions attached to the footage, this political reversal would clear the path for Rahul Gandhi to become Prime Minister of India. The video's spread has been rapid, shared repeatedly with commentary suggesting that Kumar has "changed sides again"—language that plays on his actual history of political realignment. But the claim, when examined closely, collapses entirely.
India TV's investigation traced the video to its source: News 24's YouTube channel, where it was originally uploaded on August 9, 2022. The footage is not new. It is not about recent developments. It documents events from nearly two years before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a period when Kumar genuinely did leave the BJP to join the Mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance, a coalition of opposition parties. Someone had extracted a segment from that older report, stripped it of its temporal context, and repackaged it as breaking news about a fresh political rupture.
The timing of the misinformation is significant. India's 2024 general elections concluded without any party securing an outright majority. The BJP won the most seats and formed a government with support from coalition partners, including Kumar's Janata Dal-United and the Telugu Desam Party led by Chandrababu Naidu. In this fragile political moment, when alliances genuinely matter and shifts in allegiance could reshape the government, the false video arrived to suggest exactly such a shift was underway. The captions promised that the I.N.D.I.A. alliance—the opposition coalition—would triumph, that Kumar had switched sides, that Rahul Gandhi's ascension was imminent. None of it was true.
What makes this particular instance of misinformation worth noting is how it exploits a real pattern in Kumar's political biography. He has, in fact, moved between alliances multiple times over the years, making him a figure whose loyalties are understood by the public as fluid. The video's language—"Isn't it surprising? Nitish Ji, have you changed sides again?"—weaponizes this reputation, making the false claim feel plausible to viewers who remember his actual shifts. The emotional register of the captions, the breathless tone of the question, all of it is designed to feel like confirmation of something people already half-believe.
The investigation itself was straightforward. Using basic search techniques, India TV located the original News 24 report and confirmed its date. The video's content matched what had been reported in August 2022, not June 2024. There was no new statement from Kumar, no announcement of a political realignment, no evidence of any kind that the current NDA coalition had fractured. The entire narrative was constructed from old footage and new captions, a simple but effective technique for manufacturing false news in an environment where most people do not click through to sources or check dates.
What remains is a reminder of how misinformation operates during politically sensitive periods. The false video did not require sophisticated deepfakes or complex technical manipulation. It required only the willingness to remove context, to present the old as new, and to trust that viewers would not verify what they were seeing. In a country where elections shape governance and alliances determine who holds power, the spread of such content—even when debunked—plants seeds of confusion and erodes confidence in what is actually happening. The fact-check confirms that Nitish Kumar remains within the NDA coalition, that no realignment has occurred, and that Rahul Gandhi will not become Prime Minister as a result of any recent political shift. But the video, once released, continues to circulate, and some who see it will never see the correction.
Notable Quotes
The video is quite old and this is news from the time when Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had left the BJP alliance to join the Mahagathbandhan— India TV fact-check investigation
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a video from 2022 suddenly matter in 2024? What made someone decide to recycle it now?
Because the political moment was ripe for it. After the elections, the government was fragile—no majority, coalitions holding everything together. A video suggesting a major alliance partner might defect would genuinely alarm people. The timing wasn't accidental.
But wouldn't people remember that Nitish Kumar actually did leave the BJP in 2022? Wouldn't that make the old footage obviously old?
That's the clever part. His reputation for switching sides is exactly what makes the claim believable. People remember he's done it before, so the video feels like confirmation of something they already suspect about him. The old footage becomes new evidence of an old pattern.
So the misinformation works because it's partially true—he did leave the BJP, just not when the video claims?
Exactly. It's not a complete fabrication. It's a displacement. The real event is moved forward in time and presented as current news. That makes it harder to dismiss as obviously false.
What happens to people who see the debunking? Do they believe the fact-check?
Some do, some don't. But the damage is already done. The false version spreads faster and wider than the correction ever will. Even people who learn it's false carry the impression that something shifted, that the alliances are unstable. The correction is technical; the misinformation was emotional.