Video showing massive crowd at Puri Rath Yatra viral as Rahul Gandhi’s rally

A video showing a bird’s-eye view of a large gathering of people is viral on social media with claims that these people came together for a Congress rally. The overwhelming number of people in the video, according to social media users, was a testament to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s popularity. The video was also overlaid with audio calling Rahul Gandhi a ‘liberator’ like Mahatma Gandhi.

The Congress leader, along with his allies, has been holding several rallies in poll-bound Bihar, where he is leading the Voter Adhikar Yatra.

X user @RightToVote_ shared the viral video, claiming ‘Rahul Gandhi has written history’ — referring to the number of people gathered for him. (Archive)

Several other X users, such as @TiwariIyc, @VidyakantPande4 and @DhruvRatheFc also circulated the video with similar claims. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

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The video was also viral on Facebook with similar claims. Screenshots below:

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Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the claims regarding the viral video, we broke it down into several keyframes. A reverse image search on one of these led us to this YouTube short, originally uploaded on June 30, 2025. The caption had references to the Jagannath Rath Yatra festival in Puri, Odisha.

Taking cue from the caption, as well as the visuals, which match those in the viral video, we could conclude that the viral clip has been taken from this video.

Moreover, on closely looking at the video, we could spot the famous Jagannath temple of Puri, towards which the crowd was seen heading. In the viral video, this part was concealed by text, which read “Jannayak Rahul Gandhi.”

Thus, the viral video of the massive crowd is actually from this year’s Jagannath Rath Yatra festival held in Puri and not from a rally in support of Rahul Gandhi.