An old video of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Navneet Rana crying and being consoled by her husband, is being shared online with a misleading claim that Rana was caught on camera weeping after losing to her Congress opponent, Balwant Wankhede, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
BOOM found that the video is from 2022, showing Rana meeting her husband in a hospital after being released on bail from prison, for the couple’s stunt of threatening to recite the Hanuman Chalisa prayer outside then Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence. In the 24-second video, Rana is seen lying on a hospital bed, being consoled by her husband, Ravi Rana, and weeping continuously.
In the 24-second video, Rana is seen lying on a hospital bed, being consoled by her husband, Ravi Rana, and weeping continuously.
The clip is circulating as Rana failed to secure her Amravati Lok Sabha constituency seat, losing to Congress’s Balwant Wankhede in the Lok Sabha polls.
The video is being shared with a caption, “Poison Worded Bigot Navneet Rana after Losing, this Morning5.” (sic)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Another verified X user posted the video and wrote, “When Balwant Wankhede of the Congress party defeated sitting MP and BJP candidate Navneet Rana from the Amravati lok Sabha Constituency in eastern Maharashtra she became inconsolable”.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM found that the video is from 2022 and not related to the 2024 general election.
The viral video has a watermark of CNN News 18. We ran a keyword search related to “Navneet Rana Crying News18” and found the same video was uploaded on CNN-News18’s official YouTube channel on May 5, 2022.
The now viral video is a cropped version of the original report published by CNN-News18. The uncropped video showed how Rana broke into tears upon meeting her husband in the hospital after being released on bail following her arrest related to the Hanuman Chalisa row.
The description with the video states, “MP Navneet Rana after being released on bail was rushed to Lilavati Hospital.”
We also found several news reports from that time featuring visuals of the former Amravati MP Navneet Rana being consoled by her husband in the hospital.
A report by the Press Trust of India stated that on May 5, 2022, Ravi Rana, the MLA from Badnera in eastern Maharashtra’s Amravati district, alleged that prison officials ignored his wife, Navneet Rana, an independent MP from Amravati, when she complained of health issues and requested hospitalisation. According to the article, Rana was released on May 5, 2022, from Byculla Women’s Jail in Mumbai, two hours before MLA Ravi Rana was released from Taloja Prison in Navi Mumbai.
The report further added, “Both had been arrested by Mumbai Police for ‘sedition’ and ‘promoting enmity between different groups’ on April 23 following their call to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ here. A court granted them bail on Wednesday.”
(This story was originally published by BOOM, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)
