A video of Manak Gupta is being shared on social media with the caption, “In the survey of the biggest media TV Today Chanakya, a clear wave of Mahabal Mishra is visible. It seems that Mahabal Mishra will win by 5 lakh votes.”
In the video, it can be heard, “ Hello, you are watching ‘Rashtra ki baat’ and I am Manak Gupta. In this year’s Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, the scale seems to be tilting heavily towards the INDIA Alliance. According to the Today Chanakya opinion poll, out of the total seven seats in Delhi, six seats appear to be going to the INDIA Alliance. Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi is emerging as a strong contender. On this seat, 58% of the votes seem to be going to Mahabal Mishra of the INDIA Alliance. Meanwhile, 39% of the votes are going to the INDIA Alliance, and 2% of the votes are going to others.”
Fact Check
We investigated the viral claim and the video. Investigations reveal it is a deepfake video & made by cloning the AI-generated voice over the video.
Initially, we sought out an authentic video featuring Manak Gupta. Locating it on Facebook, the video displayed the day “Friday” and a timestamp around “approximately 04:59”. Upon further inspection of the channel’s other videos, we stumbled upon another one. This particular video was streamed live from News24’s Facebook page on March 29th. It constituted an episode of the “Rashtra ki Baat” program, focusing on the allocation of seats to the INDIA Alliance in two states.
Also, we noticed that both the original and viral video look the same but the viral video wasn’t lip-synced with the audio overlayered into it.
Furthermore, we also checked the official page of Manak Gupta and found a post dated 24.05.2024 where he had shared the viral video and called it fake. “This video of mine which is going viral is completely fake. My video has been taken from my show ‘Rashtra Ki Baat’ and my AI-generated voice has been inserted in it. All the graphics are also fake,”
Additionally, we also checked and found no current exit poll predictions made by The Today’s Chanakya about the result of the Lok Sabha elections. Today’s Chanakya’s X handle quoted the post of the anchor and called the viral video fake. They clearly mentioned, “We have not released any Opinion poll on Delhi or any other state. All polls in our name are fake & do not belong to us.”
They again reminded their audience with another post on 25 May, which you can read below.
Conclusion
Thus, from the fact check it is clear that the viral video is Fake. It has been created using an AI-generated voice clone. The original video talks about the allocation of seats to the INDIA Alliance in two states.
DFRAC Analysis: Fake
