An old image showing an aerial view of a sea of crowd in Kolkata's Dharmatala area during the 21 July Martyr's Day rally has been falsely shared as Gujarat's Surat during Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Italia's filing of nomination.
BOOM found that the photograph was clicked during the Martyr's Day rally on July 21, 2017. The rally, organised by the All India Trinamool Congress on July 21 every year, commemorates the killings of 13 youth Congress workers in 1993.
The image is viral in the backdrop of the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls. According to reports, AAP announced that their Gujarat unit president Gopal Italia will contest from Surat's Katargam constituency. Congress has fielded Kaplesh Variya, an OBC leader for the seat. BJP has not named their candidate yet for the same seat.
The photo has been tweeted by an unverified handle named "@AAP4Jhalawar" with a Hindi caption, "Gopal Italia filed his nomination today in Surat with a grand roadshow with Raghav Chadha. This picture is clearly telling the mood of the people of Gujarat."
(Original caption in Hindi: "गोपाल इटालिया ने आज सुरत में राघवा चढ्ढा के साथ भव्य रोड शो करते हुए नामांकन दाखिल किया। यह तस्वीर गुजरात की जनता का मुड साफ साफ बयां कर रही है"।)
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on Google and found that the original image was posted in Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's official Facebook profile on July 21, 2017.
Shahid Dibas or Martyrs Day pays tribute to the 13 Youth Congress workers who were killed during the political clashes with police on July 21, 1993.
View the image here.
The same image was also published on TMC's official website on July 21, 2018 and it was credited as a file image.
An image of the same event clicked from a different angle can be seen on Punjab Express and The Hindu's reports.
Here is a comparison of the same.