A photo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seen interacting with a child is viral on social media with captions purportedly claiming that the UP CM has promised to support the child who had been recently orphaned.
BOOM found that the viral picture is from Gorakhpur when Yogi Adityanath had visited the city and celebrated Diwali with members of the Vantangiya community in 2019.
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Ahead of PM Narendra Modi's visit to his Parliamentary constituency Varanasi, the UP chief minister had visited the city on July 5 to take stock of the undergoing projects there. The picture is viral against this backdrop.
The viral picture has been shared with a caption reading 'Yesterday Yogi in Kashi visit saw a child crying.He went to child & asked the reason.Child said my parents died.I was staying with Mama,yesterday he also d!ed. Yogi Said "Beta from 2day I am ur Mama"He ordered DM to take care of his food & education from CM fund till he gets job'.
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The picture is viral on several Facebook pages too.
The same picture is viral on Facebook with Hindi captions.
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Fact Check
We did a reverse image search on the viral picture and found a news report published on Hindi website Live Hindustan on October 27, 2019.
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The Live Hindustan report states that the chief minister had arrived in Gorakhpur to celebrate Diwali with members of the Vantangiya community, a forest dwelling tribe in UP.
BOOM also found several other reports which mention that Yogi Adityanath has been celebrating Diwali with the Vantangiyas for many years now. Read here and here.
We found another report published in Punjab Kesari in 2019 which has the same image that is viral now.
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BOOM was unable to independently identify the child seen with the UP chief minister in the viral picture.
None of the news reports from 2019 which include the photo have any details about the child being an orphan or the chief minister pledging to financially support the child.