A post accompanying a couple of images of a large gathering is being shared widely across social media platforms with a claim that the image shows the crowd from the latest meeting held by Congress and Left parties in Kolkata. Even the Congress party’s official Twitter handle also shared the same image with a similar claim. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Images showing large crowd gathering in a recent meeting organized by Congress and Left parties.
Fact: The image actually shows a large public gathering for a meeting organized by left-front parties in Kolkata’s Brigade parade ground back in 2019. Multiple news agencies have reported the meeting. Although the Left parties held a meeting recently in which the Congress party also participated, these images are not related to that meeting. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Except for their brightness levels, both the images in the post are actually the same. Reverse image search of the photo in the post led us to a 2019 news article that published the same image. As per this article, the image shows a large public gathering for a meeting organized by the Left front in the brigade parade ground in Kolkata.
Taking a cue from the news article, further search led us to a tweet by CPI (M) West Bengal unit dated 10 June 2020. The tweet shared the same image with the caption ‘A bird eye view of last year Birgade Rally at Kolkata’. This implies that the image is actually of the 2019 meeting.
Further Google search with relevant keywords led us to multiple news articles which reported this particular meeting back in 2019. These news articles can be read here and here. All these establish that the image in the post is not related to the recent meeting.
In view of the recent rally organized by the left parties at Kolkata’s Brigade parade ground in which the Congress party also took part, posts like these are being shared on social media with misleading claims.
To sum it up, an old image from a 2019 Left front rally is being shared as recent one from Congress -Left meeting in Kolkata.
