A photo through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that dedicated BJP workers were hoisting their flag in Tamil Nadu. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of dedicated BJP workers hoisting their flag on a pole in Tamil Nadu.
Fact: The photo is morphed from an image shared by Bahujan Samaj Party personnel. According to RS Praveen Kumar, the Chief Coordinator of BSP’s Telangana state unit, the photo shows BSP workers in action in Telangana. The flag part of the viral photo was morphed with the flag of BJP. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the photo, a similar photo was found on Twitter. However, the flag on the pole was not the BJP’s flag. The photo was shared by a BSP Telangana member who said that BSP workers had climbed the pole and hoisted the ‘Blue Flag’ (BSP Flag). The photo was also shared by RS Praveen Kumar, the Chief Coordinator of Bahujan Samaj Party’s Telangana state unit.
It can be seen that the flag part of the photo had been morphed with the BJP flag taken from the starpng website which had a freely downloadable image of the BJP flag.
When both the images are compared, it can be seen that the flag part was morphed in the viral photo. We can say that the BJP flag is morphed but we could not independently confirm whether there was a BSP flag there.
To sum it up, this photo of workers climbing on the pole to hoist a flag had been morphed with that of BJP’s.
Update (10 JUNE 2022):
Other similar photos are now being shared with the flags of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress party.
The RJD flag has also been picked from the ‘starpng’ website and edited into the photo. The same flag can be seen on that website. So, the photo with the RJD flag is an edited one.
In their investigation, ‘Vishwas News’ has found that the photo is from Uttar Pradesh and the pole in the photo actually has a BSP flag. The posted photo with the Congress flag is also an edited one. Multiple parties have edited the photo and placed their own party flags.
