An alleged ABP News report, which showed the Congress party leading by a significant margin in their opinion poll for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections, is being extensively circulated on various social media platforms. According to the poll, the Congress is projected to win 150-158 assembly seats in the state, while the BJP is expected to secure only 66-75 seats. Through this article let’s fact-check the veracity of the news report shared in the post.
Claim: ABP News opinion poll predicting Congress victory in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh state elections.
Fact: The viral report is a digitally morphed version of an earlier report of the ABP news published in June 2023, featuring the opinion poll for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The original poll indicated a closely contested race, with a slight edge for the Congress over the BJP. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
It is true that ABP released an opinion poll concerning the upcoming Madhya Pradesh state assembly elections. However, it’s important to note that it is not the latest poll but was actually published back in June 2023. Moreover, the poll indicated a closely contested race, with a slight edge for the Congress over the BJP, very different from the claims that the Congress had a substantial lead, as suggested in the viral video.
A relevant keyword search did not yield any report of ABP news featuring an opinion poll, favoring the Congress party as indicated in the viral video. However, the search led us to a tweet by the Vice President of the ABP News agency cautioning against the circulation of a manipulated opinion poll.
A further search yielded an ABP news report that featured the results of an opinion poll conducted by C-Voter on behalf of ABP. This poll, conducted between 26 May and 26 June 2023, projected a narrow lead for the Congress party over the BJP in the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.
The viral report, featuring a different set of results, has been created by digitally morphing this original report, by adding different graphics and voiceovers. This becomes apparent when one compares the screenshots of the viral video with those from the original report.
A comparison of region-wise prediction of seats for both parties, as mentioned in the viral report and the original report can be seen in the below table. All these indicate that the viral video is created by digitally morphing the original report published by ABP in June 2023.
To sum it up, this ABP report featuring the opinion poll for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh election is digitally morphed.
