Fact Check: This picture of people waving BJP flag on a pole is edited; The original picture is of Uttar Pradesh and the flag was of BSP.

Vishvas News (New Delhi): Vishvas News came across an image being shared on Twitter, where four people could be seen standing on each other and hoisting a BJP flag. It is being claimed that this is from Tamil Nadu. Vishvas News in its fact check found the image to be morphed. In the original picture the flag is not of BJP but of BSP.

Claim:

Twitter handle, Prajwal Busta, who is a lawyer and a BJP spokesperson shared a picture of human pyramid hoisting a BJP flag on the twitter handle.
The caption read: Lotus is blooming in Tamil Nadu 🙏
तमिलनाडु भगवामय होने की तरफ अग्रसर
संगठन गढ़े चलो, सुपंथ पर बढ़े चलो।

Check the post and its archive version here.

Other users (archive) too are sharing this image with similar claims:

In a remote village Osur in Tamil Nadu. Best picture of this week. Not only cadre based BJP. It is Ladder based Party. No Dynast तमिलनाडु के एक सुदूर गांव ओसुर में। इस हफ्ते की सबसे अच्छी तस्वीर. தமிழ்நாட்டின் ஒசூர் கிராமத்தில். இந்த வாரத்தின் சிறந்த படம். pic.twitter.com/767XDl98g1

— R. RAJAGOPALAN (@RAJAGOPALAN1951) June 7, 2022

Investigation:

Vishvas News started the investigation of the image with a simple Google Reverse Image search.

We found the Twitter handle of Shirisha Swaero Akinapally who had shared the picture on May 31, 2022.

Check the tweet here:

https://twitter.com/ShirishaSwaero/status/1531648364726456321?s=20&t=lKW07twokL_JDpr4RFgwtA

Shirisha Akinapally is state spokesperson with BSP.

Dr RS Praveen Kumar, chief coordinator, Bahujan Samaj Party, Telangana too had shared the same post.

Check the tweet here.

This is @BSP4Telangana at work. No rest till we make poor as rulers✊ https://t.co/b7u0zHUnho

— Dr.RS Praveen Kumar (@RSPraveenSwaero) May 31, 2022

It was thus clear that the picture had BSP flag and was morphed and replaced with BJP flag.

Vishvas News in the last step of investigation reached out to the BSP state president, Telangana M Balaiah. We sent him the picture through WhatsApp. He too confirmed that the image had a BSP flag and not BJP flag.

However, it was yet not clear from where did the picture actually belong. Vishvas News then reached out to a few journalists in Telangana, who connected us with the BSP members.

One BSP member Ajay from Telangana confirmed that the flag is indeed a BSP flag but the picture is not from Telangana. He told us that the image is from Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2017. He informed us that the picture was taken by Rohitash Kumar who hails from UP.

Vishvas News in its next step of investigation got in touch with Rohitash Kumar. He told us that the picture was clicked by him in the year 2017 in Shahpur, Uttar Pradesh. He also confirmed that the BSP flag was hoisted by his cousins and brothers from top, Titu, Rinku, Bablu and Arvind. Rohitash Kumar also informed that the flag is still in the same place in Shahpur, Kutub, Aligarh, where the image was clicked and also shared the pictures of the same location.

Twitter user R Rajagopalan who claimed that the image is from Tamil Nadu’s remote village Osur is a media personality. He has 38.4K followers on Twitter.

Conclusion: Viral image claiming that the human pyramid hoisted a BJP flag in Tamil Nadu is fake. The image originally has a BSP flag and is not from Tamil Nadu but from Shahpur, Uttar Pradesh clicked during the 2017 UP elections.

Tags

• BJP
• BSP
• Fact Check
• fake news
• Telangana
• Uttar Pradesh