Morphed images are shared as Opinion Polls predicting Shiromani Akali Dal's victory in the Punjab Elections - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 25, 2022
Screenshots of multiple opinion polls purportedly reported by the ‘Zee News’ and ‘India TV’ channels are being shared on social media claiming that both these opinion polls have predicted the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD)  thumping victory in the Punjab Assembly Elections. These opinion polls have predicted that the SAD will secure a majority of 65-75 seats in the Punjab Elections. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: The ‘Zee News’ and the ‘India TV’ opinion polls predicting the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) victory in the Punjab Elections.
Fact: The opinion polls images shared in the post are edited ones. Both ‘Zee News’ and ‘India TV’ opinion polls have predicted that Shiromani Akhali Dal will secure 25-32 seats in the 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections. The ‘India TV’ and ‘ZEE News’ Punjab Elections opinion polls predicted a hung assembly with no party crossing a majority mark. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Let’s find the authenticity of these opinion polls one by one.
‘Zee News’ opinion poll:
On reverse image search of the screenshot shared in the post, we could not find any reliable information related to this photo shared in the post. When we searched for the ‘Zee News’ Punjab Assembly Election Final Opinion poll using relevant keywords, we found the opinion poll on their YouTube channel. This video was published on 05 February 2022. But the original ‘Zee News’ opinion poll had predicted Shiromani Akali Dal winning 25 to 28 seats in the Punjab Assembly Elections. The ‘ZEE News’ opinion poll had predicted a hung Assembly with no party crossing a majority mark in the Punjab Elections.
On observing the ‘ZEE News’ opinion poll video carefully, it can be understood that the image shared in the post was created by editing a template displayed to show the possibilities of coalitions to form the government in Punjab. Several other news websites like ‘India TV’ and ‘DNA’ have published articles reporting the ‘Zee News’ final opinion poll predictions on the 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections. They can be seen here and here.
‘India TV’ opinion poll:
When searched for the ‘India TV’ opinion poll for the 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections, we found the opinion poll in an article published by ‘India TV’ on 31 January 2022. The ‘India TV’ opinion poll had predicted 50-52 seats for Congress and 30-32 seats for the SAD in the Punjab Assembly Elections.  ‘India TV’ published the same opinion poll image on their Facebook page.
To sum it up, these opinion polls predicting the Shiromani Akali Dal’s win in the Punjab Elections are edited ones.