A photo of a massive gathering in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh has been falsely attributed to Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan.
BOOM found that the viral photo is from the Jai Gurudev Ashram in Mathura, and was taken during a religious feast held on December 3, 2022.
Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra received a grand welcome in Rajasthan after covering a distance of 380 kms in Madhya Pradesh over a period of 12 days. The yatra is set to travel across 500 kms and pass through Jhalawar, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Dausa, and Alwar. Amid this, a viral photo online depicting a massive crowd gathering was peddled as being a part of Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan.
The photo is being shared with captions claiming it shows a massive turnout at Jhalawar district of Rajasthan to welcome Rahul Gandhi.
Click here to view the post.
Manoj Chawla, INC MLA from Alote, Rajasthan also shared the post.
Click here to view the post.
It was also shared by INC leader Ritu Choudhary on Twitter with the caption that translates to 'pictures speak'.
Click here to view the tweet.
The claim is also being circulating on Twitter by other users.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the photo is from the Jai Gurudev Ashram in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh and not from Jhalawar, Rajasthan.
We ran a reverse image search of one of the photos from the Facebook post, and found another tweet claiming that the photo is actually from Mathura's Jai Gurudev Ashram and was clicked on December 3.
ये भी सही है। 🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/cFBypIslKS
— Doctor Wait (@WaitReborn) December 7, 2022
Taking a cue from this, we contacted the ashram and spoke to its General Secreatary, Baburam Yadav, who confirmed that the photos were taken at the ashram on December 3, 2022.
Yadav told BOOM that the image shows a large religious feast organised at the Jai Gurudev Ashram in Mathura, on December 3. The head of the organisation, Pankaj Maharaj spoke at the event.
We then looked up Pankaj Maharaj's Facebook page and found the exact same photo uploaded on his profile on December 3.
A side by side comparison of the photos can be seen below.
The earliest post with this photo is from December 3, when Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra was yet to reach Rajasthan.