Siddaramaiah's 'world record' moment goes bust as social media users fact check

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s post on X celebrating two world records has drawn scrutiny online after users flagged the authenticity of the certificate he shared.

In the post, Siddaramaiah highlighted the Shakti Scheme achieving “the largest number of free bus rides availed by women, 564.10 crore journeys” and KSRTC being “the most award-winning road transport corporation in the world with 464 national and international honours since 1997,” citing the London Book of World Records (LBWR) as the certifying authority.

However, contributors on X quickly pointed out that LBWR, a private company in the UK, was dissolved on July 15, 2025, according to the UK Companies House.

Links to the official registry were shared online, raising questions about the certificate’s legitimacy.

Some users mocked apparent inconsistencies and lax editing in the certificates, such as mismatched references to “record” and “records”.

Others pointed to the awkward language and formatting errors, with one commenter posting, “Someone in Karol Bagh has drafted it,” implying the document might have originated from within India and not from a reputed UK institution.

Leaders of the opposition, including BJP’s CT Ravi, seized on the controversy, equating the certificate to a forgery and accusing the Congress-led state government of falling for or leveraging a dubious validation for political gain.

“This certificate looks as fake as the Congress Government itself!” he declared in a post tagging Siddaramaiah.

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