A photo of the Aam Aadmi Party election poster is being shared on social media. The poster reads – “भाजपा को हराना चाहते हैं? तो, झांटु को ही वोट दें” (which can be roughly translated as – “Want to make BJP lose? then vote only for jhantu”). Jhantu/Jhatu is a derogatory word. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: AAP poster asking people to vote only for ‘Jhantu/Jhatu’
Fact: The poster in viral post is an edited one. The original poster reads – “झाड़ू को ही वोट दें” (Vote only for Jhadu). ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom – AAP symbol) word has been edited to make it ‘झांटु’. The same edited photo is viral since 2019 and has been debunked by multiple news agencies in the past. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On observing the word – ‘झांटु’ closely (by increasing the brightness of the photo), one can see the shade difference between ‘टु’ and other letters.
When the photo was run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same photo was found to be shared by multiple people since March 2019. However, one can find the AAP posters from January 2019 with the slogan – “भाजपा को हराना चाहते हैं? तो, झाड़ू को ही वोट दें।“ (Want to make BJP lose? then vote only for jhadu). ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom – AAP symbol) word has been edited to make it ‘झांटु’ in the posted photo. Some of the tweets made by AAP party members in January 2019 can be seen here, here, here, and here.
The meaning behind the posters as explained by one of the AAP party members can be seen in the Aaj Tak video. When the edited photo went viral in March 2019, NDTV also held a discussion on it, which can be seen here. Also, the original photo can be seen in the Aaj Tak fact-check article published in 2019.
To sum it up, the posted photo is an edited one. The original poster reads – ‘झाड़ू’ (Jhadu/Broom).
