An image circulating on social media shows Rahul Gandhi with a woman, purported to be Amulya Leona Noronha, who chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ at a public meeting held by Asaduddin Owaisi in Karnataka a few years ago (here & here). This article aims to verify the accuracy of that claim.
The archived version of this post can be found here
Claim: Image of Rahul Gandhi with Amulya Leona, who chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ at a public meeting held by Asaduddin Owaisi.
Fact: The person seen with Rahul Gandhi in the photo is Miva Andreleo, a student leader from Kerala. This image was captured in 2022 while Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was underway in Kerala. She is not Amulya Leona who chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ at a public meeting held by Asaduddin Owaisi. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The person seen with Rahul Gandhi is not Amulya Leona, known for her ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan. Upon conducting a reverse image search on the viral picture, we found several tweets debunking this claim (here and here). According to these tweets, the woman in the image is identified as Miva Andreleo, a student leader from Kerala.
Taking a cue from these tweets, further investigation led us to the same image posted by Miva Andreleo on her Instagram on 21 September 2022. The caption accompanying the photo read, “Happiest moment in my life.” Further, we also found reports indicating that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was happening in Kerala during this time frame (here & here).
Additionally, we discovered that Miva Andreleo served as the District Secretary of the Kerala Congress Student Union in Ernakulam. The KSU is the student wing affiliated with the Indian National Congress (INC) party in Kerala. In several other Instagram photos shared by Miva Andreleo, she is depicted holding KSU flags.
As the photo gained traction online, several official Congress Twitter accounts and party leaders clarified that the individual with Rahul Gandhi in the image is KSU member Miva Jolly (here & here).
Comparision of the images of Miva Andreleo and Amulya Leona further confirms that the woman seen with Rahul Gandhi in the widely circulated image is indeed Miva Andreleo, not Amulya Leona Noronha.
To sum up, the person with Rahul Gandhi in the viral image is Miva Andreleo, a student leader from Kerala, not Amulya Leona.
