Category: showing

  • A video has been circulating on social media showing some men taking out ballots from several Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines and placing them into a black bag. The claim accompanying this video suggests that the footage is related to the first phase of polling in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, held on April 19, 2024. Users have also claimed that ballots were being stolen from VVPAT machines by BJP functionaries.

    A user named Sandeep Varma tweeted the video, alleging that after the elections on April 19, ballots were being stolen from VVPAT machines kept under tight security, and the BJP was carrying out the exercise.

    A user named Jennifer Fernandes tweeted the video, questioning the Election Commission and asking why these machines were being tampered with.

    A user named Kiran Patnaik also raised questions while tweeting the video, asking where the ballots were being taken without them being counted.

    Fact Check

    Alt News performed a reverse image search using one of the frames from the viral video on Google. This led us to the original video, which was uploaded by a user on December 13, 2022. In other words, the video is old and has no connection to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    The Collector of Bhavnagar had also issued a reply from their official handle, stating that as per the Election Commission’s guidelines, after the completion of counting, the ballots were removed from the VVPAT machines, placed into a black envelope, and sealed for future elections. He added that the entire process was videographed, with one copy stored in a strong room and another kept with the relevant district election officer.

    To sum up, several social media users shared an old video of the routine process of removing ballots from VVPAT machines, falsely linking it to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and making the false claim that ballots were being stolen from the machines by BJP workers.

    The post Video showing VVPAT slips being taken out after counting falsely viral as BJP tampering with EVMs appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A newspaper clipping from Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar has been doing the rounds online in which an infographic claims that according to a survey jointly conducted by Dainik Bhaskar and Nielsen, the INDIA alliance was leading in 10 states of the country and could cross the 200-mark in these states alone. There is also a related report on the page.

    Telangana Congress spokesperson Asma and many Congress supporters such as the Spirit of Congress account and Priyamwada, shared this, claiming that Modi’s image was not enough to secure votes in the Hindi belt states and added that the NDA was scared of losing the polls in Bihar, Bengal, and Maharashtra.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    Alt News observed that there were differences in the fonts in the different stories on the page. A reverse image search on Google led us to a tweet which contained an image of the entire page. A close look at the image makes it clear that the page has been tampered with. Signs of editing are visible in the image, and as a result of these edits, some of the text has been concealed.

    We noticed that the viral newspaper clipping is the Bhopal edition dated April 13, 2024. Upon checking the Bhopal edition of Dainik Bhaskar on April 13 on their website, we found that there was no such content on any page. This newspaper clipping has been doctored. The survey and the related story have been inserted replacing the lead story of the page which was about rainfall in Bhopal and a BJP banner ad.

    Dainik Bhaskar national editor L P Pant issued a statement on X (Twitter) declaring this newspaper clipping as fake and stating that Dainik Bhaskar had not conducted any such survey.

    To sum it up, a number of Congress supporter handles and other users shared a fake clip of a newspaper claiming that according to a Dainik Bhaskar-Nielsen survey, the INDIA alliance was leading in 10 states of the country.

     

    The post Fake Dainik Bhaskar clip with survey showing INDIA alliance ahead in 10 states viral appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.