India's opposition party, Congress, frequently faces misinformation accusing it of favoring the Muslim minority. Recently, a video circulated online before local elections claimed to show supporters of a Muslim Congress leader waving flags of Islamic nations and organizations. However, the footage was from a Muslim holiday procession unrelated to the elections.

"Look at their flags. Flags of Palestine, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Hezbollah.. No Indian flag," read an X post that shared the video on November 15, 2024.

"Guess this election rally is from which country? This is in the secular Maharashtra state Akola west. Congress party candidate Sajid Khan Mastan Khan election rally."

The footage shows a cavalcade with people waving the Indian tricolour along with flags of various Muslim countries and groups.

The post racked up more than 125,000 views as Sajid Khan, a Muslim politician from the Congress party, campaigned for the Akola West seat in Maharashtra elections -- which he went on to win.

In an attempt to topple the ruling Maharashtra coalition, which is headed by Prime Minister Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress joined forces with regional parties. 

The Hindu nationalist BJP's supporters have frequently charged that the Congress is more tolerant of India's 200 million-person Muslim minority.

India has a secular constitution, but since Modi came to power in 2014, there have been increasing efforts to bring the governmental system closer to the predominant Hindu faith.

The video was shared with similar claims elsewhere on X and Facebook. 

However, the footage shows a religious Islamic procession in Latur district of Maharashtra approximately 330 kilometers (200 miles) from Akola (archived link ). 

Religious procession

A reverse image search on Google found a longer version of the video posted on YouTube on October 1, 2024 (archived link).

The video's headline suggests it shows a procession to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid Milad-un-Nabi in the Latur district of Maharashtra.  

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false posts (left) and the YouTube video (right):

Another keyword search on YouTube found similar videos of a procession on local news channels Latur News Official and BharatSatta Live from September 2024 (archived link here and here).

Hamid Sheikh, editor of BharatSatta, confirmed that the clip in false posts showed an Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession in Latur, Maharashtra.

"The procession was taken out by citizens on Milad-un-Nabi on September 19, 2024," he told AFP on November 20. 

"The procession began at Sophia Mosque in the city and passed through Main Road via Shivaji Chowk and Gandhi Chowk. This video was recorded near Gandhi Chowk."

AFP confirmed the location of the video by comparing it to Google Maps imagery from the area (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false post video (left) and Google Street View (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP: