Image Credit: Facebook
Uttar Pradesh
Viral Letterhead Of SP Requesting Candidates To Transfer Their Vote To BJP To Defeat BSP Is Fake
|A purported letterhead in the name of the Samajwadi Party President Naresh Uttam Patel reads, "Wherever Samajwadi candidates are in a weak position in all the Vidhan Sabhas, all the candidates should try to transfer their entire votes to BJP or other parties to defeat the strong candidates of BSP". The Logical Indian Fact Check team verifies the viral claim.
The voting for the seventh and the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections is going on. In this phase, voting is being held in 54 assembly seats in 9 districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In this phase, almost two crore voters will decide the fate of 613 candidates. A voter turnout of 21.55% has been recorded till 11 am.
Amidst this, a purported letterhead in the name of the Samajwadi Party President Naresh Uttam Patel is going viral on social media. In the viral letterhead, it is written in Hindi, "सभी विधानसभाओं में जहां—जहां समाजवादी के प्रत्याशी कमजोर स्थिति में हैं वहां के सभी उम्मीदवार बसपा के मजबूत उम्मीदवारों को हराने के लिए अपना संपूर्ण वोटों का ट्रांसफर भाजपा या अन्य दलों को करने का कष्ट करें। क्योंकि बसपा को हराना है धन्यवाद".
[English Translation: Wherever Samajwadi candidates are in a weak position in all the Vidhan Sabhas, all the candidates should try to transfer their entire votes to BJP or other parties to defeat the strong candidates of BSP. Because BSP has to be defeated. Thank you.] The date mentioned on the letterhead is February 27 2022.
A Facebook user shared this image with a Hindi caption that reads, "कौन है बीजेपी का एजेंट देख लो और अब भी वक़्त है अपना वोट मजलिस को दो बीजेपी हराने के लिए वोट देना बंद करो."
[English Translation: Look who is the agent of BJP, and now is the time to give your vote to Majlis. Stop voting to defeat BJP.]
A Twitter user who mentioned Journalist in his bio shared this post and asked Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav to verify the viral letterhead.
It is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim.
Claim:
Samajwadi Party asked voters to vote for BJP to defeat BSP.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the claim and found it to be false. Samajwadi Party issued a statement and denied the viral claim.
During the initial investigation, we did an open keyword search and found a report of The Wire dated March 02 2022, in which the viral letterhead can be seen. The report's title reads, "UP: SP Blames BJP-BSP For Fake Letters On Forged Opposition Letterheads". According to the report, Samajwadi Party Rajendra Chowdhry alleged that this is a "transfer of vote conspiracy". He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is in connivance with the BSP and circulating these fake letters to lure the voters before the last voting phase.
On searching more, we found an official statement issued by Samajwadi Party on their official Facebook and Twitter handle, calling this viral letterhead fake. As per their Facebook post, National Secretary of SP Rajendra Chaudhary has written a letter in the name of Director General of Police that on March 03, 2022, and on March 07, 2022, the sixth and seventh phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election 2022 is to be held.
He has written that given its defeat, to influence the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in connivance with the Bahujan Samaj Party, issued a forged letter number 1162/2022 dated 27/02/2022 on the letterhead of the Samajwadi Party State President with his forged signature. It is being circulated on social media. An FIR has also been registered against the conspirator, the post claims.
We also shared this Letterhead with Nasir Salim, spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party. He said, "This letterhead is fake. We have complained about this to the election commissoner and local police. This is a well-planned conspiracy of the BJP in connivance with BSP who feared that they are losing the election, so they came up with this to lure voters". He also shared a copy of the FIR with us. Below you can see it.
Our investigation shows that the SP letterhead ordering to vote for BJP or other parties to defeat BSP is fake. The Samajwadi Party issued no such letterhead or statement, and they have also registered a complaint against this. Hence, the viral claim is false.
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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