9-Month-Old Video From West Bengal Municipal Election Passed As EVM Rigging In Gujarat Elections

Image Credit: Twitter

The Logical Indian Crew

9-Month-Old Video From West Bengal Municipal Election Passed As EVM Rigging In Gujarat Elections

A video of alleged vote rigging at a polling booth has gone viral on social media, where a man can be seen casting votes continuously on the EVM machine in front of the officials. The Logical Indian Fact-Check team verifies the claim.

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Results of Gujarat assembly elections are being declared today, with BJP leading on the majority of seats. After the elections, 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. While sharing this video, people on social media claimed that votes were cast unlawfully in Surat's Varachha district during the ongoing Gujarat assembly elections. Let us tell you that the last phase of polling in Gujarat took place on 5th December.

The counting of votes for the Gujarat assembly elections is going on. In the trends, BJP seems to be getting a huge majority. BJP is leading on 157 seats, while Congress and AAP are leading on 19 & 6 seats, respectively.

A Twitter user shared this video and wrote a caption in Hindi which reads,"गुजरात के तमाम मतदान केंद्रों पर बीजेपी और मतदान (संघ)कर्मियों की मिलीभगत से बीजेपी के पक्ष में EVM की बटन एक आदमी लगातार दबाता रहा. मतदाता को EVM का बटन नहीं दबाने दिया. मोदी और चुनाव आयोग मिलकर लोकतंत्र का गला घोंट रहे हैं. वीडियो में देखिए."

[English Translation: With the connivance of BJP and polling (Sangh) workers at all the polling stations in Gujarat, one person kept pressing the button of EVM continuously in favor of BJP. The voter was not allowed to press the EVM button. Modi and the Election Commission together are strangling democracy. See in the video.]

Another user wrote, "गुजरात के तमाम मतदान केंद्रों पर बीजेपी और मतदान कर्मियों की मिलीभगत से बीजेपी के पक्ष में EVM की बटन एक आदमी लगातार दबाता रहा. मतदाता को EVM का बटन नहीं दबाने दिया. मोदी और चुनाव आयोग मिलकर लोकतंत्र का गला घोंट रहे हैं. वीडियो में देखिए."

[English Translation: Due to the connivance of BJP and polling personnel in all the polling stations of Gujarat, one person kept pressing the button of EVM continuously in favor of the BJP. The voter was not allowed to press the EVM button. Modi and the Election Commission together are strangling democracy. Watch the video @RahulGandhi.]


It is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim.

Claim:

The viral video shows vote rigging in Surat's Varachha district during the Gujarat assembly elections.

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 Gujarat.

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 election. 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.

Our investigation shows that the viral video is almost 9 months old and was shot during the West Bengal municipal election. It has nothing to do with the ongoing Gujarat 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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Contributors Suggest Correction
Writer : Jakir Hassan
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Editor : Bharat Nayak
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Creatives : Jakir Hassan

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