Fact Check: Viral pre-poll data shared as NDTV opinion poll on Karnataka election is fake
Vishvas News found in its investigation that most of the opinion poll figures in the alleged NDTV graphic are wrong. NDTV is yet to conduct its poll. A fake picture of an opinion poll is being shared after editing.
- By: Pragya Shukla
- Published: May 9, 2023 at 04:01 PM
- Updated: May 9, 2023 at 04:11 PM
New Delhi (Vishvas News): Amid the ongoing political campaign for the Karnataka Assembly election, an alleged graphic plate of NDTV is becoming increasingly viral on social media. The post is being shared with the claim that Congress is going to win the Karnataka polls this time with a huge majority.
Vishvas News found in its investigation that most of the figures in the graphic are wrong. NDTV is yet to conduct its opinion poll. The picture going viral is fake.
Claim:
Twitter user Spirit of Congress shared the viral post on May 2, 2023.
The user wrote: “BREAKING NOW – KARNATAKA ELECTIONS
Most Opinion Polls are unanimously predicting that in Karnataka, BJP is staring at their biggest defeat due to huge anti-incumbency against 40% Commission govt.
Today, the NDTV Poll of Polls Tracker is predicting that.”
The archived link to the post can be accessed here.
Investigation:
Vishvas News scanned NDTV’s website to ascertain the veracity of the viral claim. No reports related to Viral Opinion Polls were found. However, NDTV was found to have conducted opinion polls on many other poll issues in association with Lokniti Center. In the first poll, NDTV asked its viewers from Karnataka about which party’s campaign was the most visible. BJP emerged ahead in this poll. The second poll was on the voters’ preferred choice of candidate for the post of chief minister. Congress leader Siddaramaiah was found to be a favourite in this poll.
We looked through NDTV’s social media accounts and found that a tweet related to the claim was posted on May 3, 2023. The post on NDTV’s official handle described the viral poll as fake, saying, “Fake Tweet Alert | False posts on NDTV Poll of Poll tracker for Karnataka, being widely circulated, are misleading.”
Taking the investigation further, we started searching about opinion polls of other channels mentioned in the viral post. We found that according to the polls of Zee News Matrize Karnataka, Suvarna News – Jan Ki Baat and TV9 Kannada, BJP may get more seats.
According to four other polls, ABP News – C Voter, Lok Poll, C-Daily Tracker and Edina News, Congress will get more seats in the state. We found that the viral post mentioned correct figures of only two polls – Edina News and Lok Poll. The rest were wrong.
We contacted Piyush Kumar, a journalist with NDTV, for more details. He termed the viral claim as false.
At the end of the investigation, we scanned the page of the user who shared the viral post with the false claim. We found that the user is associated with Congress. More than 93,000 people follow the user. According to the information on the profile, the user has been active on Twitter since October 2015.
Conclusion: Vishvas News found in its investigation that most of the opinion poll figures in the alleged NDTV graphic are wrong. NDTV is yet to conduct its poll. A fake picture of an opinion poll is being shared after editing.
- Claim Review : New Delhi (Vishvas News): Amid the ongoing political campaign for the Karnataka Assembly election, an alleged graphic plate of NDTV is becoming increasingly viral on social media. The post is being shared with the claim that Congress is going to win the Karnataka polls this time with a huge majority.: NDTV pre-poll
- Claimed By : Twitter User:
- Fact Check : False
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