Vishvas News’ investigation found the viral claim to be misleading. The press release being shared in the name of Congress is fake, as the party has not announced its candidates for the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh yet.
New Delhi (Vishvas Team): A post circulating on social media falsely claims that the Congress party has declared Rahul Gandhi as its candidate for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from the Rae Bareli constituencies.
Vishvas News investigation found this claim to be misleading. The press release being circulated in the name of Congress is fake, as the party has not announced its candidates for the Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies till the time of publishing this fact check.
(Update on May 3: According to the news reports, the Congress Party released a new list on Friday, May 3, 2024, and announced that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli, while KL Sharma has been fielded from Amethi. )
On May 1, 2024, a Facebook user named Shiv Das (Archive) shared the post with the caption, “Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi from Rae Bareli have jumped into the fray. It will be interesting to see whether Smriti Irani beats or gets defeated this time too. It would have been better if Priyanka Gandhi had fought against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. In politics, sometimes the message matters more than victory, which Raj Narayan ji once gave by contesting elections against former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Later his victory became a chapter in the pages of history.”
We started the investigation with an open search on Google but found no news of the announcement of Congress candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli seats. Being the high-profile seats, any such announcements would have made headlines. However, in our investigation, we found reports stating that Congress candidates for these constituencies have not been announced yet.
Further, we also investigated the official social media accounts of Congress but no such posts announcing the candidates for these seats were found.
Upon investigating, we found a list of four Lok Sabha candidates released by the Congress party on April 30, 2024, featuring the names of Raj Babbar, Anand Sharma, Satpal Raizada, and Bhushan Patil being nominated from Gurgaon, Kangra, Hamirpur, and north Mumbai respectively.
We also contacted Vineet Punia, Secretary in charge of internal communication at the All India Congress Committee (AICC), who confirmed that the post was fake.
A comparison of screenshots of the Congress candidate list released on May 30, 2024, and the list used in the viral post revealed many similarities, suggesting that the viral list was probably prepared by editing this list.
(Update on May 3: According to the news reports, the Congress Party released a new list on Friday, May 3, 2024, and announced that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli, while KL Sharma has been fielded from Amethi. The difference between the real and the fake lists can be seen in the collage below.)
It’s important to note that voting for the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections is scheduled for May 20, 2024 and the deadline for filing nominations for these seats is May 3, 2024.
Facebook user Shiv Das, who shared this misleading viral user, has over 800 followers.
Disclaimer: Some changes have been made to this story to accommodate the latest updates.
Conclusion: Vishvas News’ investigation found the viral claim to be misleading. The press release being shared in the name of Congress is fake, as the party has not announced its candidates for the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh yet.
Knowing the truth is your right. If you have a doubt on any news that could impact you, society or the nation, let us know. You can share your doubts and send you news for fact verification on our mail ID contact@vishvasnews.com or whatsapp us on 9205270923