Fact Check: Viral Claim About Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi Being Married Is False; Featured Photo Shows Three Schoolgirls Not His Family
The claim that Rahul Gandhi has a wife and children is fake and the picture is of three school children from Madhya Pradesh whom Rahul Gandhi met in Ujjain during the ‘Bharat Jodo’ Yatra.
- By Vishvas News
- Updated: August 26, 2024
New Delhi (Vishvas News). A picture of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is going viral on social media. It shows him with three children and a woman, with the claim that the picture shows the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha with his wife and three children. A few users have shared the image on the Vishvas News WhatsApp tipline seeking to verify the authenticity of the claim.
Vishvas News investigated the claim and found it to be false. The viral picture is from Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, where three children from Ujjain were promised a helicopter ride. Gandhi fulfilled the promise in Bundi, Rajasthan, where he took the children on a spin in the chopper he was using.
What is viral?
The viral photo is shared with the caption “Wife Jonita Vinci, son Nohak Vinci, 19 years, daughter Meenaik Vinci, 15 years, and the Father is a 56-year-old bachelor in India.”
Many users also shared the photo with the same claim.
Investigation
To verify the viral claim, we began our investigation by using Google reverse image search to find the source of the image. It figured in many news reports from 2022.
According to an ABP Live report from Dec 9, 2022, Rahul Gandhi fulfilled a promise made to three students from MP during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. While in Rajasthan, he invited the students —Sheetal, Antima, and Girija— from Ujjain to Bundi, where they enjoyed a helicopter ride with him, as promised. During a previous discussion about their career aspirations, where the students had expressed their wish to fly with him, to which Rahul Gandhi responded, “I promise to take you on a flight soon.”
We also found a report on Dec 9, 2022, from zeenews.india.com about this incident.
Our investigation confirms that the viral picture is from the Bharat Jodo Yatra when Rahul Gandhi met school children in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, where they expressed their desires to fly in a helicopter. This promise was fulfilled in Bundi, Rajasthan.
We reached out to Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Abhimanyu Tyagi, who confirmed the claim is false. “This is a case of propaganda,” he said.
Gandhi, currently the Member of Parliament from Rae Bareli is listed as unmarried in his election affidavit. Following the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had clarified that Gandhi would continue as MP from Rae Bareli but step down from the Wayanad seat, which he had also won in the general election, earlier this year. His sibling and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi will now be the Congress candidate from the Kerala constituency.
Conclusion: The claim that Rahul Gandhi has a wife and children is fake and the picture is of three school children from Madhya Pradesh whom Rahul Gandhi met in Ujjain during the ‘Bharat Jodo’ Yatra.