Old image of AIMIM chief’s defaced poster viral with false context of UP elections
A post circulating on social media with #UP_mein_Owaisi features an image of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s supremo Asaduddin Owaisi’s vandalized poster. The said post has widely attracted Twitter users and is now going viral.
Claims: The caption in the viral post read, “UP mai only BJP”, claiming only BJP can rule Uttar Pradesh and will be re-elected in the upcoming elections. The caption with an image of Owaisi’s defaced banner subtly signified that it is a recent click from UP, and the retaliation is due to him contesting the 2022 elections in the state.
#यूपी_में_ओवैसी
UP mai only BJP 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/bBxFJOZMwV— Hemant Kushwah🇮🇳 (@hemant_191) July 8, 2021
UP mai only BJP#यूपी_में_ओवैसी pic.twitter.com/8Kmgtcr6At
— Uttam Kumar Pradhan (@uttamkrpradhan) July 8, 2021
#यूपी_में_ओवैसी
UP mai only BJP 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/eKFk4jGB6H— Simran Bisht (@SimranB05628634) July 8, 2021
#यूपी_में_ओवैसी
UP mai only #BJP 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/BSrVU0H1rQ— Namrata Pandey (@NimmiPandey1) July 8, 2021
Truth
No, the featured picture is two year old, and from Jharkhand, not UP as claimed.
The assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh are around the corner. As a result, fake news sources have started putting their best foot forward to influence netizens into bringing the party of their choice to power. We found one such post with the caption, “UP mai only BJP”, which claimed that only BJP could rule the state of UP and featured an image of a vandalized poster of the AIMIM supremo.
To begin the investigation, we ran a reverse image search on the image with the relevant keywords. While going through the results, we found a news story published by Jagran with the same picture.
The above article was published back in September 2019, and the caption with it read, “रांची के बरियातू मैदान में सभा को लेकर लगाए गए पोस्टर में एआएएमआइएम के चीफ असुदद्दीन ओवैसी के चेहरे पर कालिख पोत दी गई।” (“In the posters put up for the meeting at Bariatu Maidan in Ranchi, the face of AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi was blackened.”)
Similarly, Zee News India also published the story presenting the defaced poster from a different angle. In the image, the name of the city Ranchi is clearly visible.
In addition to that, Zee News’s story also confirmed that the incident happened at Kachahari Chowk in Ranchi. Hence, it is evident that an old image is circulated with false context in the viral post.
