A video of Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader K Annamalai in tears while speaking on stage has gone viral on the internet.
Users sharing the video claim that it was shot after he lost the Lok Sabha elections from Coimbatore constituency.
“He worked round the clock for three years, reaching out to every corner of Tamil Nadu. BJP’s vote share in Tamil Nadu is currently at 19 per cent and when he came to power it was just 8 per cent. It means a lot to see tears in his eyes. But he will come back. Annamalai is the future of Tamil Nadu. I love him and will always support him,” the complaint reads.
(Further archives of social media allegations can be found here and here.)
What is the truth? The video is not recent and predates the June 4th election results.
The video dates back to April 2024, when Annamalai got emotional while speaking at Kasturi Nikenpalayam in Coimbatore.
How did we know the truth? We ran a reverse image search on Google along with some keywords related to Annamalai and landed on a YouTube video.
-This was shared with News18 Tamil Nadu on April 17, before the election results were out.
– Taking a hint, we Googled the keywords “Annamalai cries on stage in April” in Tamil and came across an article in Tamil media called Dinamalar.
– This was also released on April 17 and it was reported that Annamalai was in tears on stage at Kasturi Naickenpalayam in Coimbatore.
-It was also noted that he became emotional while speaking to elderly people in the village and expressed his desire to visit the place.
Conclusion: An old video of K Annamalai crying on stage has been shared, falsely claiming that he was crying after his defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Disclaimer: This story was originally published by The Quint and has been republished by HT Digital as part of Shakti Collective.
