Old Image From Nigeria Shared As Image From Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra In Bellary, Karnataka

An image of a huge crowd is being widely circulated across social media with the claim that it shows visuals from the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The yatra is being led by Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has entered its last leg in Karnataka with the next part of the yatra to take place in Telangana from October 23, 2022. Reportedly, Gandhi has seen a large outpouring of support from the Southern states with thousands turning up to be a part of the Yatra.

Claim:

Ritu Choudhary, the Congress national coordinator tweeted the picture with the caption that Rahul Gandhi was creating history. She claimed that the image was from the Karnataka tour of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Choudhary later deleted the post.

BM Sandeep, a Congress leader also shared the image in a series of posts claiming that the image is from the Rahul Gandhi's address to a gathering in Bellary.

Virendra Chaudhary, MLA and Provincial President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee shared the picture, claiming that it showed visuals from a public gathering in Bellary, Karnataka with Rahul Gandhi present.

President of Madhya Pradesh Congress, Jitendra Patwari also posted the viral image claiming that it showed the large crowd of supporters who participated in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The image is viral across social media with a similar claim.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral image in question dates back to at least 2009 and has been circulating online since then.

We conducted a reverse image search on the viral image using Yandex search engine and came across a tweet by @Atiku_Nig_2023, tagging a Twitter account, @ThisIsBuhari.

In the Yandex search engine, we came across a report by Leiden University published January 20, 2020. The report is titled, "Collaborative International Research Grant for dr. Corey Williams". The report contained another copy of the image with the caption, "A Pentecostal revival near Ogbomoso, Nigeria. Multi-day revivals such as this draw in millions of participants."

We also came across a report on the website milost.sk

"A few weeks ago, the year 2009 ended - the year in which the world-famous evangelist Reinhard Bonnke celebrated 50 years of his service to the Lord…During the last 22 years (1987-2009), Bonnke's organization Christ for All Nations (CfaN) organized a number of evangelistic campaigns, visited by more than 120 million people, during which 62 million decisions for Christ were recorded."

In our Fact Check, we found a link to the archived version of the image uploaded on a website called Christ For All Nation. The image was featured in the official press kit of CFAN.

The earliest date when the image is accessible is on August 2, 2009. Comparing the viral image and the image on the CFAN website, we noticed several similarities.

We then conducted another keyword search for 'Reinhard Bonnke' and came across a post on the Facebook page, 'Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke - Official Page'. The post was uploaded on July 20, 2020 and is captioned Ogbomosho, Nigeria 2002.

Reinhard Boonke, as per a profile in the BBC, died on December 7, 2019. Reportedly he founded Christ For All Nations (CFAN) mission organisation in 1974 and the organisation claims that Bonnke oversaw more than 79 million conversions to Christianity.

Conclusion:

The viral image in question dates back to at least 2009 and has been circulating online since then. The image shows visuals from Nigeria and reportedly shows a Christian rally led by late evangelist Reinhard Boonke. Thus, we can ascertain that the viral image is not connected to the Bharat Jodo Yatra and is circulated with a false claim.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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