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Old Video From West Bengal Municipal Elections Passed As EVM Rigging In Recent Karnataka Elections
Karnataka, 17 May 2023 9:30 AM GMT
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While sharing a video, people on social media claimed that votes were cast unlawfully and demanded re-election or disqualification of the elected Congress MLA.
In the recent Karnataka elections, Congress witnessed a massive victory by winning 135 seats out of total 224 assembly seats in the state. The ruling BJP has got only 66 seats. Claims of vote rigging or forgery often go viral after elections.
Against the same backdrop, a video of alleged vote rigging at a polling booth has gone viral on social media. In the viral video, a man can be seen casting votes continuously on the EVM machine in front of the officials.
It is being said that the video is from Gulbarga North constituency where fake voting was done at one of the Muslim booths. While sharing this video, people on social media claimed that votes were cast unlawfully and demanded re-election or disqualification of the elected Congress MLA. It is to be noted that Congress's Kaneez Fatima won the Gulbarga North seat.
A Twitter user shared this video and wrote, "Gulbarga North Fake voting done at one of the Muslim booth around 6000 votes by single person from Congress party. Now he is under capture by chandu patil and demanding for re-election or Disqualification of Congress MLA @ECISVEEP @SpokespersonECI @BJP4Karnataka @AmitShah."
A Facebook user shared this video and wrote, "Gulbarga North Fake voting done at one of the Muslim booth around 6000 votes by single person from Congress party. Now he is under capture by chandu patil and demanding for Disqualification of Congress MLA. Kaneez Fatima of INC has won the Gulbarga Uttar. #Karnataka."
Claim:
The viral video shows vote rigging in Karnataka's Gulbarga North constituency during the Karnataka assembly election.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral video is from the West Bengal Municipal elections.
We watched the viral video and found that people can be heard talking in Bengali. It suggests that the viral video is not from Karnataka.
We then used InVid's Keyframe analysis tool to isolate the keyframes of the video. We conducted a reverse image search on one of the isolated keyframes, leading us to a Tweet done by the official handle BJP Bengal dated 27 February 2022. The tweet's caption reads, "TMC forces pressing the button before going to press the voting button. Stop the farce in the name of election! Democracy today is ashamed, looted by TMC supporters."
At that time, West Bengal Congress also shared the still of the viral video on social media and accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of rigging the elections. The caption of the tweet reads, "See how Chappa is voting! The state's democracy is in danger today. Let's raise our voice together against it. #TMClootsVote."
Taking a hint from it, we did a keyword search and found the viral video in a video report of TV9 Bangla dated 27 February 2022. The video was related to the West Bengal Municipal electionS. According to the report, the viral incident took place in ward No. 33 of South Dum Dum Municipality, where a polling agent pressed the EVM button after stopping the voters to cast their votes themselves. The incident occurred in front of the presiding officer, who was present inside the polling booth.
Conclusion:
Our investigation shows that the viral video dates back to February 2022 and was shot during the West Bengal municipal electionS. It has nothing to do with the recent Karnataka assembly election. 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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