An old photo of the former Indian men’s cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is being peddled online with a false claim that it shows him urging people to vote for the Congress.
In the photograph, Dhoni is captured wearing the jersey of his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), while prominently displaying his left palm and gesturing the number 'one' with his right index finger.
BOOM found that the picture dates back to 2020, when Dhoni and his other team members celebrated Chennai Super Kings reaching six million followers on erstwhile Twitter (now X).
Controversial film critic Kamaal R Khan posted the photo with a caption, "Dhoni is clearly saying that he did vote for congress. Fair enough!"
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Another verified X user posted the photo with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Why is Dhoni displaying his palm after voting?"
(Original Text in Hindi: धोनी वोट देने के बाद पंजा क्यों दिखा रहे?)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the photo and found that several news outlets published the photo in their reports on October 5, 2020.
The news outlets then reported about the photograph stating that Dhoni celebrated CSK's achievement of surpassing six million followers on X (formerly known as Twitter) along with his team members.
We also found that the same photograph was shared by CSK's official social media handles on October 5, 2020.
The Chennai-based IPL franchise posted the photo with the caption, "Nandri filled Thala Dharisanam as our Twitter fam becomes 6 Million Strong!"
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Furthermore, we observed another video posted by CSK on October 5, 2020, showcasing other cricketers from the franchise joining in to celebrate the team's accomplishment of reaching the same milestone. The caption with the video reads, "Chennai Super Sixer On Twitter! A big thanks to all the super fans for each and every bouquet and brickbat throughout the last decade. All the yellove to you."
Click here to view the post.