Even as the streets of Delhi and Mumbai saw massive protests demanding chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, two videos went viral on social media showing a group of young performers dancing on the streets.

The first video, roughly 1 minute long, shows youngsters dancing to the Bollywood song ‘Character Dheela Hai’. This video was posted on X by user @priyanshu__63 on October 3, with the claim that this dance performance was part of the CJP protest at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park. The video has so far garnered over 2 lakh views and 3,700 shares. (Archive)

The same clip was posted by X handles such as @AjeetPataudi, @RajuValmikiN, Maharashtra Bandhu News, @ShampaDey13, @TrendFlash1, and others with similar claims. All these posts linked the dance performance to CJP protests with some using derogatory language to shame the women dancers.

The second video, which shows a group of young female dancers dressed in black performing on the street to the song ‘Banthan Chali Bolo’, was posted on X by user, @janardanmis, on October 5. It was posted with a similar claim — that this was a scene from one of the recent protests demanding Kumar’s resignation. The post received nearly 4 lakh views and 1,800 shares.

Mishra wrote, “Watching this mujra, it seems like they are not demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation but rather performing a mujra in honor of Gyanesh Kumar.” (Archive)

This video was amplified by X users @RubiSonkar_, @RajuValmikiN, Sainidan Ratnu, @HiNdU05019434, @ivishalkaushik, and others. Again, all of them said the dancers were seeking the chief election commissioner’s resignation. Some if them used derogatory language.

Fact Check

Video I

To verify the veracity of the claims, we broke down the first videos into several relevant keyframes. A reverse image search of a keyframe led us to an YouTube video posted by the page, Dev Ki Duniya [IIT Delhi]. It is titled ‘ ‘Insane Girl vs Boy Dance Face-Off At Rendezvous!’ The same group of dancers in the same attire is seen in this video as in the first viral clip mentioned above.

The video description reveals that the clip is from street dance battle at IIT Delhi’s cultural fest ‘Rendezvous’. It says, “The Boy vs Girl Street Dance Battle at Rendezvous (IIT Delhi) was absolute madness! Watch these dancers go head-to-head with insane musicality, dirty beat drops, and raw main-character energy. Rendezvous festival crowd went completely crazy! Who won this round? Team Boy or Team Girl? Drop your vote below!,” reads the description. It further mentions the location as “Red Square, IIT Delhi Campus” and event as “Rendezvous Street Dance Face-Off (Boy vs Girl)”.

Further searches led us to another version of the same dance battle posted on Instagram page of user, @avika_re12, with the caption: “Hip hop battle part 1” on October 1.

 

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A post shared by Noity Reign (@avika_re12)

The dance battle video from IIT Delhi was also posted by the page ‘indianbestdancer‘ on Instagram.

Video II

Similarly, reverse image searches on keyframes of the second video led us to an Instagram reel posted by the Instagram page ‘india_best_dancerss’ on March 25. The same group of girls in the same attire is seen performing to the same song as in the viral clip. The caption of the video reveals that it is from a dance performance by students at a Chandigarh university.

A deeper dive led us to an even older Instagram reel posted by the account ‘Chandigarh’s Youth Media Platform’ (@sd_flashzoom) on March 7. The location of the post is tagged as Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College in Chandigarh.

To sum up, both videos are of separate college dance performances; the first took place in IIT Delhi sometime in the first week of October and the second is from a programme at Chandigarg college, which was shared back in March. Neither of the two videos have any connection to CJP-led protests against SIR and voter fraud. Thus, the claims being circulated by social media users are false.

False
Claim:
Dance performances were held at CJP protests against Gyanesh Kumar

The content is factually incorrect or fabricated.

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