Allegation that Samajwadi Party’s election symbol was missing from EVM at a booth in Farrukhabad is not true
In the wake of the ongoing 2022 elections in UP, a video through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that the election symbol of the Samajwadi Party was missing in the EVM used in a specific polling booth in Farrukhabad. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Report of Samajwadi Patry’s missing election symbol in the EVMs in Farrukhabad.
Fact: The video reports about an allegation by Samajwadi Party that its election symbol was missing in EVMs at booth number 38 in Vidhan Sabha 194 of Farrukhabad district. The Fatehpur police confirmed that a voter complained regarding the photograph of the candidate not being printed on VVPAT slips in Farrukhabad, not with respect to EVMs. The matter was resolved after it was explained to the voter that party symbols are printed on the VVPAT slips, not the photograph of the candidate. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a longer video with the same visuals was found in Bharat Samachar’s official YouTube channel. The YouTube video claims that because of the negligence of officers, SP’s election symbol was missing from the EVM in a specific polling booth in UP.
Upon searching in Google about such an incident in Farrukhabad, several articles reported about Samajwadi Party’s tweet about its missing election symbol in EVMs. In their tweet, they urged the district administration and the ECI to take cognisance of the situation at booth number 38 in Vidhan Sabha 194 of Farrukhabad district.
In reply to a tweet thread by a journalist, about the same alleged incident in Farrukhabad, Fatehgarh police responded saying that an incident related to VVPAT slips was reported but not regarding EVMs. At booth number 38, a voter named Kuldeep Yadav complained over a call regarding the photograph of the candidate not being printed on VVPAT slips. The matter was resolved after it was explained to him that party symbols are printed on the slips, not the photograph of the candidate.
To sum it up, the allegation that Samajwadi Party’s election symbol was missing from EVM at a booth in Farrukhabad is not true.