A fake graphic claiming the Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to win a massive 138 out of 182 seats in the upcoming Gujarat polls and trounce the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is being shared on Facebook.
The fake graphic further alleges that 1100 BJP in Gujarat have resigned and joined AAP.
BOOM found that the graphic is fake as there are several discrepancies in the text.
The graphic shows a bizarre speculative result of the Gujarat polls, with 138 seats secured for AAP, 30 seats for BJP and the Congress securing only 11 seats out of the total 182 seats in the upcoming assembly elections. It further falsely claims that a huge number of BJP leaders have resigned the party to join AAP and Kejriwal's AAP has formed the next government overthrowing Modi .
The graphic, which also features an image of Aaj Tak's news anchor Sudhir Chaudhary, is being shared with a caption, "Aam Aadmi party zindawad".
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Fact Check
Opinion Poll Giving AAP 138/182 Seats Does Not Exist
BOOM first performed a keyword search to find whether a survey predicting AAP's sweeping victory in the elections and the ruling BJP receiving only 30 seats was conducted; we did not find any such pre-poll survey.
Same Graphic Used As Thumbnail In A YouTube Video Repeating Fake Claim
We then performed a reverse image search on the graphic to find its origin and found a YouTube video carrying the same thumbnail image uploaded on a channel named SM Headlines on October 8, 2022.
In the first part of the video Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia can be heard saying how a large number of BJP workers have joined their party as they did not find any hope in the BJP. It later carries a voiceover of a person who claims that 1100 BJP workers have resigned from the party to show their support towards AAP.
In the last few seconds of the video, the voiceover says that AAP is going to win the Gujarat elections as per a few opinion polls without mentioning its sources. BOOM was able to ascertain that the video has been edited to include unrelated clips of Sisodia.
Taking a cue from Manish Sisodia's statement, we ran a related keyword search and found news reports on Sisodia's comments which were made for the Himachal Pradesh elections . According to Sisodia over 1,000 BJP workers were keen to join AAP soon in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Sisodia however does not mention Gujarat.
The press conference which was streamed live by the AAP's official YouTube channel on April 14, 2022 can be seen below.
1100 BJP members joining AAP in Gujarat?
We also checked if there are news reports present on 1100 BJP members in Gujarat resigning from the party to join AAP. The search led us to an Indian Express news article published on August 3, 2022 reporting about resignation of 1100 BJP workers who were upset over the demolition of a Radha Krishna temple in Navsari.
As per the report, opposition parties such as Congress and AAP have supported the agitation. BOOM however did not find any credible news report mentioning that 1100 BJP members have joined the AAP following their resignation. Also, Navsari district BJP president Bhuralal Shah said that the party was yet to verify the number of people who submitted their resignation letters, thus making it further unclear.
Based on the invalid findings, the graphic further states, "Modi faces huge blow; Kejriwal government in Gujarat." Since the election dates have not been announced by the Election Commission of India, the statement claiming Kejriwal's win in Gujarat is not true.
