A video of a man instructing voters inside a polling booth and accompanying them to the EVM machines as they cast their votes, is viral with misleading claims on Facebook. In the two-minute long video, the man hurling instructions and violating the Code of Conduct, has been falsely identified as Madhya Pradesh BJP MLA Anil Upadhyay on social media.
The viral video, where the audio has been slowed, is doing the rounds on social media, with the caption, “BJP विधायक अनिल उपाध्याय की इस हरकत पर क्या कहेगे MODI जी, इस video को इतना वायरल करो की ये पूरा हिन्दुस्तान देख सके..”
Translation: “What would be the reaction of Modi Ji regarding BJP MLA’s Anil Upadhyay’s misdoings? Spread the video so much that the entire nation can watch it.”
The video has been posted by multiple Facebook users.
The same video has made its way on Twitter as well, where he has been identified as an MLA of the Congress party.
Fact Check
BOOM broke the video into key frames and performed a reverse image search. It led us to a report by Republic TV. The report claimed that the video is of a TMC worker who had entered a pooling booth in Islampur, West Bengal, on April 18, the second phase of the general elections.
We then looked up for news reports with keywords Islampur and TMC workers and found a longer version of the same video in a news report, where a man wearing a white kurta can be seen instructing voters as they vote.
We also observed the video and found that another man, in black pants and a white shirt, was ‘instructing’ voters in a similar way before the former joined in. Voters, mostly women, could be heard chatting in Bengali.
We sent the video to Mohammed Selim, CPI(M) Member of Parliament from Raiganj, who confirmed that the incident took place in his constituency. “This is originally from the Islampur Assembly segment of my Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency. The white kurta clad man is a TMC Panchayat member.”
BOOM conducted its own independent checks and found that the man was later identified as Hamizuddin, TMC member of Ramganj panchayat, Islampur. In an interaction with the press, Hamizuddin claimed that he had accompanied his mother and daughters inside the polling booth. He was quoted as saying, “Since the presiding officer was unwell, he took the charge of helping his family out.”
Selim also added that a complaint has been lodged against Hamizuddin for violating the Election Code Of Conduct.