The Jan Vishwas Maha Rally, organised by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on March 3, witnessed the attendance of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and CPI (M)’s Sitaram Yechury. Against the backdrop, an image showing a huge crowd at a political rally has resurfaced on social media, claiming that it is Patna’s Gandhi Maidan where leaders of the INDIA Alliance met in the Jan Vishwas Maha Rally.
A Facebook user posted with a caption: “पटना का गांधी मैदान … Tejashwi Yadav जी ने कहा था “खेला अभी बाक़ी है” … और आज उस खेल की पहली झलक दिख गई है … अभूतपूर्व !!! #INDIA गठबंधन के सभी वरिष्ठ नेता पहुँच रहे है (English translation: Gandhi Maidan of Patna… Tejashwi Yadav ji said, “The game is yet to be played”… and today the first glimpse of that game has been seen… Unprecedented!!! All senior leaders of #INDIA alliance are reaching)”.
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post, and found it to be False.
Running a Reverse Image Search of the picture, the NM team identified a tweet carrying the same image by Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of Bihar, dated August, 27,2017, with a caption: “No ‘Face’ will stand in front of Lalu’s ‘Base’”. Come & Count as much as u can in Gandhi Maidan, Patna #DeshBachao.” The comments in the comment section confirm that the image is photoshopped.
Searching further, we found a real image in an X post by the ANI news agency, dated August,27,2017, showing a sparsely crowded ground.
Multiple reports by the Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, and The Wire have questioned the same image in 2017, which clarifies that the image is morphed.
Hence, we can conclusively say that an edited image showing a sea of the crowd at a political rally falsely linked to the Jan Vishwas Maha Rally.
