With speculations rife that Sourav Ganguly might make his debut in politics, a fake poster showing him posing with logos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPIM) and the All Indian Trinamool Congress have gone viral. The three viral posters welcome the former India cricket captain into politics with the logo of the respective party.
BOOM found that no such official announcement has been made by any party or Ganguly and the fake poster has used his image from an old advertisement for incense sticks.
The West Bengal Assembly Elections will begin from March 27 this year and both TMC and BJP parties have declared their list of candidates in the run up to the Bengal elections. All opposing parties are holding public meetings and rallies to build a strong vote count ahead of the upcoming polls. here have been speculations of Ganguly joining politics ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021. Former India cricket captain and the president for the Board of Control for Cricket of India (BCCI), Sourav Ganguly had ruled out joining politics as informed by his friend and senior left party, CPIM leader, Ashok Bhattacharya. According to a Times of India report, Ganguly had recently said in an interview to a private media channel, that ''everyone is not meant for every role'' to respond to rumours that were doing the rounds over him joining politics.
The series of viral images Ganguly with folded hands with the logo of BJP, TMC and CPI-M. Each poster has him wearing a different coloured kurta.
The caption viral with BJP's poster of Sourav Ganguly reads, ''দাদা জয় শ্রী রাম'' which trabslates to ''Welcome brother''.
Archive of such posts can be seen here and here.
It is also viral with the Trinmool Congress party logo and a green background with Sourav Ganguly wearing a green coloured attire.
Archive can be seen here.
We further found the same poster with CPIM party's logo and red background colour with Ganguly's kurta changed to red colour.
Archive can be seen here.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the poster and was directed to the original image on Pinterest posted by the incense sticks brand, Cycle.in. The caption of the image read, ''Cycle Rhythm Agarbathies is proud to associate with Sourav Ganguly as its brand ambassador. Sourav Ganguly personifies the spirit of Bengal and Cycle Rhythm Agarbathies is partnering hope & trust of Bengal for 60 years. #PurityOfPrayer''
We searched for the same image on the brand's social media accounts and found it on their Facebook page from September 10, 2016. Ganguly became the brand ambassador for the incense sticks brand, Cycle Pure in 2016.
BOOM compared the original image with the different posters that are being circulated on social media. We could ascertain that the image of Sourav Ganguly from the Cycle brand has been edited into the posters and each of them have been created on a template adding respective party logos and background colours, and also changing Ganguly's shirt colour.
Such a comparison can be seen below.
Also read: 2019 Image Of Left Front Rally Now Revived By BJP Handles