An edited image is being shared with the false claim that it shows Congress supporters waving a Pakistani flag in Amravati, Maharashtra, following the victory of their candidate Balwant Wankhade.
BOOM found that the claim is false and the flag in the image has been digitally added to make the false claim. The original video from which the viral image has been taken does not show any Pakistani flag.
Wankhede defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's Navneet Rana in Amravati by a margin of 19,731 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Congress has performed well across Maharastra, by winning 13 out of the 48 seats in the state, the highest for any individual party. Following Wankhede's win, videos on social media showing the party's celebration in Amravati had gone viral.
The viral image shows a Pakistani flag being raised in one of these celebrations by the Congress, and is being shared on Facebook with the caption, "Pakistan flag unfurled in Amravati Congress celebration"
(Original text in Hindi: "अमरावती काँग्रेस के जश्न मे निकला पाकिस्तान का झेंडा")
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The post is also being shared on X with the caption, "Pakistan flags were seen dancing in the procession of Congress candidates."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photo has been edited to include a flag of Pakistan to make the false claim.
We ran a reverse image search with the viral image on Google and the search results showed a YouTube video posted on June 5, 2024. The visuals in the video match the viral image and was shared with the title 'Amravati view #congress'.
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We found that the viral image is a screenshot from this YouTube video. However, the original video from YouTube does not contain the flag of Pakistan as claimed in the viral image. Below is a comparison:
We then looked for celebration videos from Amravati after Congress' win and found this YouTube video shared by Mumbai Tak on June 5, 2024, a day after results were announced. The video was titled 'Yashomati Thakur targets Navneet Rana by imitating her'
(Original text in Marathi: 'Amravati Lok Sabha Election Result: Navneet Rana यांची नक्कल करत Yashomati Thakur यांनी साधला निशाणा')
The video showed winning candidate Balwant Wankhede and his aide Yashomati Thakur celebrating in Amravati after defeating Navneet Rana.
We observed the video closely and were able to establish that the location of this celebration was near Rajkamal Chowk or Rajkamal Square in Amravati.
We looked up the street view of Rajkamal Chowk on Google Maps and were able to confirm that it was the same location where the viral image was also taken.
We were unable to confirm the date on which the viral image was first taken, however, we were able to confirm that it was taken in Amravati and was digitally altered to include a Pakistani flag.
