Official handles of Delhi and Tripura Congress tweeted a collage of two graphics with the Aaj Tak logo claiming the channel said that the Bharat Jodo Yatra has made Rahul Gandhi more popular than Narendra Modi among masses.
BOOM found that the graphic is from a 2019 news story by the channel about a survey conducted to check the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition members and and puts together screengrabs for answers to two different questions from the 'Mood of the Nation' poll.
According to news reports, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra is set to enter into Andhra Pradesh on October 14, 2022. The foot march is Congress's nationwide campaign launched on September 7 and expected to cover a distance over 3000 km passing through 12 states and 2 Union territories within 150 days. The image is being shared in this backdrop.
Tripura Congress's official handle tweeted the image with a Hindi caption saying, "Bharat Jodo Yatra will gradually wipe out BJP from this country..."
(Original Text in Hindi: #BharatJodoYatra धीरे-धीरे इस देश से बीजेपी का सफाया कर देगी..)
Click here to view the post.
Delhi Congress also tweeted the picture with a similar false claim.
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the graphic with the words - Desh Ka Mijaaj - in Hindi is about the survey Mood Of The Nation conducted by the India Today group in December 2018-January 2019.
Using relevant keywords, we found a news bulletin by AajTak about the survery aired on January 25, 2019. The channel, a part of the India Today group also tweeted about the same.
The caption with the tweet reads, "Here is the graph of popularity of PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi and the mood of the public in the Lok Sabha elections".
Click here to view the tweet.
Survey On Best Alternative For PM Choice
We first looked for the graphic that had 52 percent for Rahul Gandhi and found it aired at the 2.03 minutes timestamp in the Aaj Tak show.
The graphic showed answer for the question of who would be the best replacement for Narendra Modi as the next prime minister of the country and said that their survey showed Gandhi leading with 52 percent votes.
A comparison between the upper section of the viral graphic and a screenshot from the AajTak bulletin from 2019 can be seen below.
The channel further aired similar results from the survey for other opposition leaders including Mamata Bannerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal and Mayawati as suitable choices for the prime ministerial position.
Survey On Best Choice For PM
Another graphic, where Modi gets 46 per cent votes, can be watched from 29 seconds timestamp in the news bulletin. AajTak showed the result related to their survey on best choice for the next prime minister. Below is a comparison.
The news bulletin further shows Narendra Modi got 46 per cent votes for the best choice for the next prime minister survey while Rahul Gandhi stood at 34 per cent votes for the same.
We also found news reports from January 2019 on the India Today-Karvy Insights survey on popularity of the Indian leaders as the next prime ministerial choice. According to India Today, total 12,166 interviews were conducted across 19 states from December 28, 2018 to January 8, 2019 by Karvy Insights Limited for the 'Mood of the Nation' poll.
AajTak also tweeted debunking the graphic terming it 'photoshopped' and 'fake' in response to the claim made by Congress handles.
Click here to view the tweet.