Old Image Of Akhilesh Yadav Distributing Food Falsely Linked To Navratri

An old photo of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav distributing food to people as part of a health scheme is doing rounds on social media falsely linking it to the Navratri festival. Netizens are falsely claiming that the image shows Yadav distributing food wearing shoes during the festivities.

BOOM found that the viral claim is false and the image dates back to 2016, when Yadav distributed food at a launch event of a health scheme for pregnant women.

The caption with the photo in Hindi translates to, "Akhilesh Yadav is feeding the girls wearing shoes in Navratri!! Future Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Now tell friends how high he thinks."

(Original Text in Hindi: नवरात्रि मे जुता पहन कर कन्या को भोजन कराते अखिलेश यादव!! भावी मुख्यमंत्री उत्तर प्रदेश अब बताओ मित्रों इनकी सोच कितनी उची हैं)

Click here to view the post.

Click here to view the post. The photo is doing the rounds on Twitter with the same caption.

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Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search to find the details about the photo and found the photo on an One India article published on July 16, 2016. The article carried a screenshot of Yadav's Facebook post featuring the same image. Yadav's Facebook post was captioned as "Launched the Hausala Nutrition Scheme, which will provide hot nutritious meals to pregnant women and malnourished children."

Taking a cue from this, we did a keyword search on Facebook and found the post carrying the same picture shared by Akhilesh Yadav on July 15, 2016.

Yadav also posted the same set of photos on Twitter and stated about the new scheme.

Click here to view the post.

We also found some news report from 2016 about the launch of Hausala Nutrition Scheme. According to The Times of India report published on July 18, 2016, "Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that the health and nutrition of women and children was one of the the top priorities of the Samajwadi government. He informed how the Samajwadi government in the state had set an example by executing the scheme through its own resources and added that Rs. 700 crore has been arranged for this scheme which will considerably improve the health of pregnant women and children."

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