With Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled to be held early next year (2022), a couple of photos are being shared on social media as related to the election campaign. Let us fact-check the claim made in the posts.
Claim 1: Photo of crowd welcoming Asaduddin Owaisi in UP.
Fact: This photo is from a religious procession from Chittagong, Bangladesh taken in November 2019. AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi had begun preparations for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, and he visited Sambhal and Moradabad districts of western UP. But this photo is not related to Owaisi being welcomed in UP. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When a reverse image search was done on the photo, a YouTube video with similar visuals was found. This video was uploaded on 13 November 2019 with the title, ‘Celebration procession Chittagong’. Similar visuals of the procession van could be seen in the video.
Taking a cue that this video is from Chittagong, Bangladesh; we searched for videos with relevant keywords and found several YouTube videos of religious procession in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2019 (the videos can be seen here, here and here). This Jashne Juluse Eid-E-Miladunnabi was observed in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2019; according to an article, ‘the holy Eid-e-Miladunnabi is the day of birth and demise of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PHUH), was observed in the country with due religious solemnity.’ A Facebook post published on 15 November 2019 had a video with the same visual as in the post. So, the posted photo is not related to Owaisi being welcomed in UP.
According to ABP news article, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi had started preparations for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and he visited Sambhal and Moradabad districts of western UP.
Claim 2: Photo of Asaduddin Owaisi meeting Amit Shah in relation to upcoming UP elections.
Fact: This photo is morphed and made using two different images. Amit Shah’s image had been edited from a photo taken when Capt. Amarinder Singh met him in relation to farmer’s issues. Owaisi’s image had been edited out from that when Owaisi along with his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi met Principal Secretary MA&UD Mr. Arvind Kumar and GHMC Commissioner Janardhan Reddy; Owaisi gave a memorandum for construction of new bridges adjacent to Nayapul. There are no recent news articles which say that Amit Shah and Owaisi met each other. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for images of Asaduddin Owaisi meeting Amit Shah, we could not find any images of them together on the internet. When individual images of Owaisi and Amit Shah are cropped and reverse image searched, we found that the photo in the post was made using two different images. Amit Shah’s image had been edited out from an image when Capt. Amarinder Singh met with Amit Shah in 2020 to resolve farmers’ issues. Owaisi’s image had been edited out from the image, when Owaisi along with his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi met Principal Secretary MA&UD Mr. Arvind Kumar and GHMC Commissioner Janardhan Reddy. Owaisi gave a memorandum for the construction of new bridges adjacent to Nayapul.
Asaduddin Owaisi meeting Amit Shah is usually revived whenever elections are around the corner. An ex-BJP MLA had claimed that Amit Shah and Asaduddin Owaisi struck a secret deal for Bihar polls. This claim was made in 2016. However, there are no recent news articles that say that Amit Shah and Owaisi met each other in relation to striking a political deal.
To sum it up, old and edited photos are being falsely shared in the context of Asaduddin Owaisi’s campaign for the upcoming UP elections.
