A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as the picture of Hindus and Muslims jointly supporting the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh. This photo shows two elderly men, a Muslim and a sadhu, holding the Congress party poster. Recently, several prominent Congress social media handles have shared this photo. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Picture of two elderly men, a Muslim and a Hindu Sadhu, holding a Congress party poster in Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is a morphed one. The original picture shows both these people holding West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s poster. This photo was first shared in March 2021, and has nothing to do with the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Elections in 2022. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found tweeted by Trinamool Congress Party Lok Sabha MP Nusrat Jahan Ruhi, on 03 March 2021. But the original picture shared by Nusrat Jahan shows both these elderly men holding a poster of Trinamool Congress Party Chief Mamata Banerjee, not the poster of Congress party. Sharing the photo, Nusrat Jahan tweeted that people across religions, caste groups, and genders are rallying behind Mamata Banerjee owing to her good work as the CM of West Bengal.
Several social media users have shared the same photo on their Facebook and Twitter handles in 2021. They can be seen here and here.
When we searched for more sources using these keywords, the original photo was found published on Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ official Facebook handle on 02 March 2021. ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ is an initiative started by the All India Trinamool Congress Party that provides a platform for the people of West Bengal to directly lodge concerns or complaints to the Trinamool chairperson and state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. This photo was shared as part of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly Election campaign. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the image shared in the post is a morphed one.
To sum it up, a morphed photo is shared as the visuals of Muslims and Hindus jointly supporting Congress party in Uttar Pradesh.
