Fact Check: Debunking Claims of Rahul Gandhi’s Alleged Visit to Ram Mandir After Raebareli Nomination

On May 6, Acharya Pramod Krishnam, a former leader of the Congress Party, said that Rahul Gandhi was planning to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the building of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir “once voted to power.” Social media is full of videos of Rahul Gandhi wearing a pink dhoti and stole, putting a tilak on his forehead, and wearing a garland around his neck. The videos seem to show him coming out of a temple. You can hear people chanting “Modi Modi” and “Jai Shri Ram” in the video. 

Many people who shared the video said it showed protesters yelling at Rahul Gandhi as he went to Ayodhya’s Ram Temple on May 3, after being nominated for Raebareli.

Someone posted the video on Facebook with the words “Seasonal Hindu Rahul Gandhi visits Ayodhya Ram Mandir after filing his nomination from Rae Bareli.” Call out “Jai Sri Ram” and “Modi Modi” as a crowd does so. From its past, you can see this.

#WATCH | Slogans including “Narendra Modi Zindabad”, “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad” raised by some people during Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Baba Baidyanath Dham temple, in Deoghar, Jharkhand pic.twitter.com/FEInvJOLfV

— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2024

The video was found to be from February 3, when Rahul went Baba Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar, Jharkhand, as part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

OUR PROBE

We first looked for news stories about Rahul Gandhi going to Ayodhya after being nominated for Raebareli, but we couldn’t find any. Then we looked backwards through keyframes of the video that went viral, which led us to a post from February 3. It said that the video showed Rahul Gandhi going to a temple in the city of Deoghar in the state of Jharkhand.

Then we found a longer version of this video that was posted on February 3. It said that Rahul Gandhi went to the Baba Baidyanath Dham temple in Deoghar, where people chanted “Narendra Modi Zindabad” and “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad.”

हर हर महादेव 🔱 pic.twitter.com/83XVv1INie

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) February 3, 2024

Reports say that Rahul Gandhi went to Baba Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar on February 3 as part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Jharkhand. From January 14 in Manipur to February 2, it was in Jharkhand that the march started. Gandhi did “Rudrabhishek” at a temple in Deoghar. People there yelled “Modi Zindabad” and “Modi Modi” in front of the Congress leader. At the time, many in Congress shared videos and pictures of his trip to Deoghar.

India Today also talked to Supriya Shrinate, a spokesperson for the Congress Party. She stated that Gandhi did not go to the Ayodhya Ram Mandir after being nominated for Raebareli. “After being nominated, he flew to Pune for a rally,” she said. The public can see where he’s been by following Congress on social media.

It is interesting to note that Rahul Gandhi went to the Lalbai Fulbai temple in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, on May 6, after being nominated. But it’s not been said that anyone was protesting against her during this stay.