Morphed photo shared as ‘Zee News’ exit poll predicting Samajwadi Party's win in the ongoing UP Elections - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 28, 2022
A screenshot of an exit poll purportedly reported by the ‘Zee News’ channel is being shared on social media claiming that the ‘Zee News’ exit poll has predicted Samajwadi Party’s victory in the ongoing 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. This purported ‘Zee News’ UP exit poll has predicted that SP will secure a majority of 227-230 seats in these elections. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Screenshot of the ‘Zee News’ exit poll predicting the Samajwadi Party’s victory in the UP Elections.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is a morphed one. All mainstream media channels including the ‘Zee News’ will telecast UP exit polls only after 6 pm on 07 March 2022, when the last phase of the UP Elections  concludes. The ‘Zee News’ Final opinion poll predicted that Samajwadi Party will secure 130-151 seats in the UP Elections and become the second-largest party after BJP. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched with relevant keywords, it is found that all mainstream media channels including ‘Zee News’ will telecast the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Exit Polls only after 6 pm on 07 March 2022, when the last phase of the UP Elections poll concludes. ‘Zee News’ did not publish any such exit poll related to the UP elections on their YouTube and other social media handles.
‘Zee News’ had published the Uttar Pradesh Elections Final Opinion Poll results on 04 February 2022. The channel conducted this opinion poll survey in association with a political campaign management company named Design Boxed. The ‘Zee News’ Uttar Pradesh Final Opinion Poll had predicted that BJP will secure 241-263 seats and be the winner in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. This opinion poll by ‘Zee News’ had predicted that Samajwadi Party will secure 130-151 seats and become the second-largest party after BJP.
On comparing a few templates of the ‘Zee News’ opinion poll with the photo shared in the post, it is confirmed that the photo shared in the post is an edited one.
To sum it up, a morphed photo is being shared as ‘Zee News’ exit poll predicting Samajwadi Party’s win in the 2022 UP Assembly Elections.