No, This Collage Does Not Show Young Eknath Shinde, PM Modi, and President Murmu; Viral Claim Is False

A collage of images showing several different people is viral with the claim that they show the past selves of Indian political leaders. The political leaders referred to in the viral posts are President Draupadi Murmu, PM Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath.

Claim:

The four images show four different personalities. The first image allegedly shows the past self of PM Modi sweeping the floor.

The second image allegedly shows the past self of President Murmu, wearing a saree and headgear. The third image allegedly shows the past self of Eknath Shinde standing next to an autorickshaw, seemingly seen as an auto-rickshaw driver.

The fourth image allegedly shows the past self of UP CM Yogi Adityanath meditating on a platform wearing saffron clothing. The collage of images is viral with the following claim.

Dainik Jagran Rajasthan Bureau chief Manoj Sharma shared this collage and wrote, "Historical Photos".

Filmmaker Subhash Ghai also shared the collage of images with a similar claim.

Social media personality Anuj Bajpai also posted the image allegedly showing Eknath Shinde as an autorickshaw driver.

The image is viral across Facebook and Twitter.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. Three out of four images circulated in the viral claim are not of prominent political leaders.

Image 1: Past Self of Modi? No, It's a Photoshopped Image

We conducted a reverse image search on the person who is alleged to be PM Modi. We came across this report by JantaKaReporter published on January 20, 2016. The report details how an RTI reply revealed that the image was photoshopped.

As per the report, the RTI reply states, "…it may be noted that the said photograph is morphed and the person in the photo is not Mr Narendra Modi."

ABP News also published a tweet on January 21, 2016, comparing the morphed image with its original version.

We conducted another reverse image search for the tweet's original version of the image. Then, we came across this image on the website Old Indian Photos captioned, "One of India's "untouchables" holds the broom he uses in sweeping out streets, yards and houses - Associated Press Photo 1946."

We also came across the image in this article by The Wire published on 14 November 2018. The caption of the image reads, "An Associated Press photograph from June 1946, released with the caption, "One of India's 'untouchables' holds the broom he uses in sweeping out streets, yards and houses".

Image 2: President Murmu

We conducted a reverse image search on the image allegedly showing the past self of President Murmu. We came across this image in this report published by News18 on July 23, 2022. The person shown in the viral image is Sukumar Tudu, a resident of Uparbeda in Odisha.

Sukumar Tudu is a sanitation worker at the local primary health centre. She had participated in festivities organised before Droupadi Murmu was elected President, as per the News18 report.

Image 3: CM Eknath Shinde

In the image, we could see the registration number on the autorickshaw listed as 'MH14', which is the code for Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune, Maharashtra.

We then conducted a reverse image search on the alleged viral image of Eknath Shinde. We came across the following report by Free Press Journal published on July 27, 2022.

The report stated that the old photo shows Baba Kamble, the rickshaw drivers' union leader from Pimpri-Chinchwad. The vehicle license registration code for the Pimpri-Chinchwad is MH14, whereas the code from where Shinde was elected, Thane, is MH04, the Free Press Journal report said.

The report referred to another report published by the Marathi news media outlet ABP Live published on 27 July 2022. The ABP Live report quotes Baba Kamble, who said that Shinde being elevated to the post of CM was a source of elation as he used to be an autorickshaw driver.

Kamble said that in their elation, they posted his photo on social media, and later someone mistook him for Shinde. He further said that the comparison arose since they both have a beard.

We also came across a video report by AajTak published on July 29, 2022. The report contained an interview with Baba Kamble, who further clarifies that the person standing near the autorickshaw in the viral image was indeed him.

In our Fact Check, we also came across the same image on the Facebook page, 'Maharashtra Rickshaw Panchayat Pune'. The image was published on July 22, 2022.

The translated caption reads, "This photo is of Baba Kamble, the Maharashtra Rickshaw Panchayat Founder-President and labour leader, driving a rickshaw in 1997. The rickshaw was being worshipped in the month of Shravan at the Ratrani Rickshaw Stand in Pimpri".

Image 4: Yogi Adityanath:

We conducted a reverse image search on the image allegedly showing a younger Yogi Adityanath and came across this Mumbai Mirror report published on March 19, 2017.

The report carries the same image alongwith the following caption, "21-year-old Ajay Singh Bisht transforming into Yogi Adityanath." The article is a profile of Yogi Adityanath published a few days before being appointed as Uttar Pradesh's CM.

We also came across a report by AmarUjala published on 8th August 2020. The report states that the image is from 1994 and shows Yogi Adityanath after he decided to become a monk and give up his identity of Ajay Bisht. The image caption reads, "Yogi Adityanath after his renunciation ceremony."

Conclusion:

In our Fact Check, we found that the images show different personalities not related to these political leaders. In the case of PM Modi, the image is a morphed photo, whereas for President Murmu, an image of a sanitation worker at a PHC in Uparbeda, Odisha.

We also found that the image alleged to show Eknath Shinde actually shows Baba Kamble, the rickshaw drivers' union leader from Pimpri-Chinchwad. However, we found that the fourth image did show Yogi Adityanath when he was young. Thus, we can conclude that three out of four images circulated in the viral claim are not of prominent political leaders.

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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