A photo purporting to show a press release by the Congress party officially declaring the names of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the party's Lok Sabha candidates for Raebareli and Amethi is fake.
BOOM found that no such press release was put out by the party on April 30, 2024, declaring the candidates for these two seats.
On April 30, 2024, the Congress party released a press release announcing four candidates for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. There has been speculation that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi might be announced as the candidates from Amethi and Raebareli, however as of writing this piece there has been no official announcement. Rae Bareli and Amethi go to vote in the fifth phase on May 20, 2024 and the last day of filing of nomination papers is on May 3, 2024.
Rahul Gandhi had contested from Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and lost to Bharatiya Janata Party's Smriti Irani. While, Sonia Gandhi has held the Raebareli seat since 2004, the seat has gone vacant after her entry into the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in February 2024. Both these seats have historically been Congress bastions.
The viral photo is being shared on Facebook with the caption when translated from Hindi reads, "Priyanka Gandhi from Amethi, Rahul Gandhi from Raibareli". The photo shows that the press release was put out on April 30, 2024, with the signature of Congress general secretary KC Venugopal.
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
BOOM also received the another similar press release photo on our WhatsApp tipline number (+91 77009 06588). In this press release it claims Rahul Gandhi as the candidate from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi from Raebareli.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the Congress party has not officially announced the candidature of either Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi from Amethi or Raebareli as being claimed in the viral press release.
We did not find any such press release posted by the party making this declaration officially on April 30, 2024. On checking the Congress Party's official X handle we found one press release that had a list of four candidates, none of them had either Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi's name on it.
The fake press release has some discrepancies, like the date April 30, 2024, has a different font and seems to be edited into the document. In addition, the font used for the candidate name is inconsistent with the font used in the rest of the circular. Congress' official press releases has the date below the signature whereas in the viral photo, the date is placed on top.