Rahul Gandhi’s body double? False claim by Himanta Biswa Sarma after India Today’s misleading tweet

India Today North East on January 22 tweeted a picture of a bus in which a man in a white T-shirt can be seen sitting next to the driver waving his hand. The outlet asked in the caption whether Rahul Gandhi was using a body double in the ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

Following this, in a January 25 press conference, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma claimed that Rahul Gandhi was indeed using a body double in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. He claimed that Gandhi was sitting inside the bus and the person who was looking out at the people from the window was not him. This statement was promoted by many media platforms.

इंडिया टुडे ने एक बहुत बड़ा खुलासा किया है कि राहुल गांधी अपनी बस यात्रा में “body double” का प्रयोग कर रहे थे। इसका मतलब बस में जो व्यक्ति बैठे थे और खिड़की से लोगों को देख रहे थे, वो शायद राहुल गांधी थे ही नहीं।#PressConferenceHighlights pic.twitter.com/b4dPckT4VV

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) January 25, 2024

Fact Check

Alt News came across a report on this matter by Lokmat Times published on January 26. It states that the person being termed as Rahul Gandhi’s body double is actually Rakesh Kushwaha from Madhya Pradesh, who is part of the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra.

Alt News tracked down Kushwaha’s Facebook profile, in which he has described himself as a Congress worker. Here, he has also shared several banners of the Congress party along with photos of himself. On January 19, he shared a set of images from Assam’s Jorhat, and more photos from Manipur and Nagaland on January 21, during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

On January 22, Kushwaha also posted a clip of an interview with ABP News on Facebook. In this video, the reporter observed that Rakesh Kushwaha was sporting a long beard as Rahul Gandhi had done in the past.

When we compared an image of Rahul Gandhi from the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra with that of Rakesh Kushwaha, we found that there were a lot of differences in their current looks.

Indian We found that Youth Congress Assam president Zubair Anam had also quoted India Today North East’s tweet on January 25, and wrote that the bus seen in the tweet was not the one used by Rahul Gandhi, but a regular bus was provided by the Indian Youth Congress for Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra participants.

@IndiaTodayNE This is not Rahul Gandhi’s Bus. This is a normal bus provided by @IYCAssam for people joining the Yatra.

If you can’t differentiate between two completely different buses, how can we expect you to differentiate between people. https://t.co/EaI7aUgR3l

— Zubair Anam (@Zubairanam) January 25, 2024

When we compared the bus seen in the outlet’s tweet with the bus used by the Congress leader, we discovered that the two were indeed starkly different.

To sum it up, a tweet by India Today created a confusion by falsely dubbing Madhya Pradesh Congress worker Rakesh Kushwaha as Rahul Gandhi’s body double, with the chief minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma amplifying and ascertaining the false claim.