An old photo from 2019 of a Left Front rally held in Kolkata, West Bengal is being shared with the false claim that it shows the crowd that gathered for the INDIA alliance rally held in Delhi on Sunday.
The INDIA alliance held a massive rally on March 31, 2024 at Delhi's Ramlila grounds with opposition leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in attendance. Several others like Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Jharkhand CM Champai Soren and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann were also present and gave speeches emphasising the need to unite against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
BOOM found that the photo is old and has been falsely shared as visuals from the India alliance rally.
The photo is being shared with the caption, "Massive crowds today at the INDIA alliance rally at the Ramlila Maidan New Delhi. Godi Media won't show you these visuals" on Facebook and X.
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FACT CHECK
BOOM ran a reverse image search and found the same photo in several articles about a Left Front-led rally from 2019.
Reports published by left leaning publications Peoples Dispatch and Peoples Democracy in February 2019 carried the same image with captions detailing that the photo shows crowds gathered at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.
The photo published by Peoples Democracy carried the EXIF data of the image. EXIF that is Exchangeable Image File Format shows details of the image metadata like the camera used and the date it was clicked.
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The date on the EXIF data shows that the photo was clicked on Feb 3, 2019, as highlighted in the box in above image.
The same photo was published by a photo and video content aggregator site India Content on Feb 3, 2019 crediting it to wire agency IANS.
According to the published reports, the rally was held by the Left Front to protest agaisnt the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government from West Bengal before the 2019 elections. The rally was attended by several prominent Left Front leads like Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Deblina Hembrem and CPI(Marxist-Leninist) liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya.
BOOM has previously debunked the same image when it was viral as crowds gathered for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in March 2021 and as a Congress rally in February 2021.
Additionally, in the viral photo red flags are prominently visible. News reports about the INDIA alliance rally held on March 31, 2024 at Delhi's Ramlila Grounds show several people carrying blue and yellow flags to show their support to arrested Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
A video report by the Indian Express showing the crowd at the INDIA alliance rally can be seen below: