Did Nitish Kumar meet INDIA bloc leaders before NDA Govt formation? Fact Check

Amid the election results after the Lok Sabha elections 2024, though BJP emerged as the single largest party, the support of allies — Janata Dal(United) and Telugu Desam Party became necessary to form the government. In this context, several leaders of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have become targets of misinformation.

नितीश कुमार बाबू दिल्ली पहुंचे और इन्डिया गठबंधन के सम्मानित हाई प्रोफाइल लीडर से मुलाक़ात की एवं
चन्द्र बाबू नायडू जी से भी इंडिया गठबंधन के शीर्ष नेतृत्व से बात चल रही है
जन नायक श्री राहुल गांधी जी ने कहा था लिख कर रख लो 2024 में मोदी प्रधानमंत्री नही बनेगा pic.twitter.com/3gEDY99py7

— Khurram Siddiqui IYC (@Khurraminc) June 5, 2024

One such involving the JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar as shown above is being shared on social media with a claim that he was meeting the INDIA bloc leaders. The claim reads in Hindi:”नितीश कुमार बाबू दिल्ली पहुंचे और इन्डिया गठबंधन के सम्मानित हाई प्रोफाइल लीडर से मुलाक़ात की एवं चन्द्र बाबू नायडू जी से भी इंडिया गठबंधन के शीर्ष नेतृत्व से बात चल रही है जन नायक श्री राहुल गांधी जी ने कहा था लिख कर रख लो 2024 में मोदी प्रधानमंत्री नही बनेगा” [Translated into English, it reads: “Nitish Kumar Babu reached Delhi and met respected high profile leaders of India Alliance and Talks are also going on with the top leadership of India Alliance with Chandra Babu Naidu ji People’s leader Shri Rahul Gandhi had said that write it down, Modi will not become the Prime Minister in 2024.”

The claim has been shared here and here.

FACT-CHECK

Since Digiteye India debunked such photos involving another NDA ally and TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu earlier, the Digiteye India team took up Nitish Kumar’s photos and checked them on Google Reverse Image Search. The results showed that they are one-year-old visuals taken when Nitish Kumar had joined the INDIA bloc in 2023.

The same picture was used by news reports as shown below:

Hence, an old image when he joined the INDIA bloc was shared again now to claim that he was holding talks with them despite being a part of the NDA. In fact, he left the INDIA bloc and joined the NDA in January 2024.

Claim: Photos of Nitish Kumar show he is meeting opposition’s INDIA bloc leaders ahead of the NDA government formation.

Conclusion: The claim is false. All the photos were taken a year ago when he was part of the INDIA bloc and not taken recently.

Rating: Misrepresentation —