Social media is abuzz with a photo that allegedly shows the Pakistan flag being waved during the victory celebrations of the Congress party in Amravati. After Congress’ Balwant Wankhede registered a win in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the Amravati Lok Sabha constituency, this photo went viral on social media. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Pakistan’s National flag was waved in Amravati during the Congress party’s victory celebration rally after the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Fact: This is an edited photo. To create this fake photo, a Pakistan flag was digitally added to a keyframe from a video shot in Rajkamal Chowk, Amravati. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we first performed a reverse image search on the viral photo. This search led us to a YouTube video and a Facebook post that contained the same visuals as the viral photo, except that they did not contain the Pakistan flag, as seen in the viral photo.
These posts (archive link) also identified the location as Amravati. To determine the authenticity of these posts, we performed a keyword search on the internet. Through this search, we learned that a victory celebration rally was held by the Congress party in Rajkamal Square or Chowk, Amravati, after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections result.
Media outlets reported (here, here, and here) that the Teosa MLA Yashomati Thakur attended a road show rally with the Amravati MP-elect Balwant Wankhede. We also found a few social media posts (here and here) that contained recent videos of the Congress party/Maha Vikas Aghadi’s 2024 Lok Sabha election victory celebrations, identifying the location as Rajkamal Chowk, Amravati.
The love ‘Amba Nagari’ sign board present in the Rajkamal Chowk, Amravati, can be seen in this video and also in the media reports of the roadshow conducted by Balwant Wankhede and Yashomati Thakur. This confirms that a roadshow was conducted in the Rajkamal Chowk after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections victory.
Further, by comparing the photos of Rajkamal Chowk in Google Maps, we concluded that the viral video was also shot in the same location. Although we could not independently verify if the video was shot after the 2024 Lok Sabha election, it is clear that the video was shot in Rajkamal Chowk, Amravati.
There are no news reports of a Pakistan flag being hoisted or waved at a rally in Rajkamal Chowk. Also, as we determined in the beginning, the original video did not contain a Pakistan flag. A keyframe from this video from around the 6-second mark was taken and edited by adding a Pakistan flag to support the viral fake claim.
Additionally, we learned that members of the VHP and Bajrang Dal submitted a memorandum to the local Commissioner of Police, Amravati, to take action against ‘hooligans’ that created a ‘ruckus’ at Rajmahal Chowk on 4 June 2024 during the victory procession of Mahavikas Aghadi candidate Blawant Wankhede.
To sum up, an edited photo is falsely shared to claim that a Pakistan flag was waved during a victory rally of the Congress party after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Amravati.
