India would elect the 543-member Lok Sabha – the lower house of the country’s legislature – in a six-week general election that began on April 19.
Analysts have long expected Modi’s BJP to win against a difficult alliance of more than 20 parties that have not yet named a candidate for prime minister.
But Modi hoped to increase his party’s parliamentary majority – by capturing southern states where his Hindu nationalism has little appeal.
The doctored photo was shared in similar posts on Facebook here and here, and on social media site X.
Comments on the posts revealed that some social media users believed that the photo showed a genuine article by Dainik Bhaskar.
“Dainik Bhaskar’s report is quite positive for the India bloc,” one person wrote.
“I I agree (sic) with the survey,” said another.
Doctored photo
Dainik Bhaskar’s national editor LP Pant told AFP that the photo circulating online had been “edited”.
“No such study has been published by Dainik Bhaskar,” Pant said.
In response to a fake post on
AFP reviewed recent issues of Dainik Bhaskar in its online database and found that the doctored photo was from the Bhopal edition of the article published on April 13, 2024.
Below is a screenshot of the image in the fake posts (left) and the real front page that AFP was able to view behind the paywall (right), with the edited elements highlighted:
The original front page featured an advertisement for the BJP and a report on rain in Bhopal. These were replaced by the alleged pre-election investigation.
AFP has repeatedly debunked disinformation circulating around India’s elections here, here and here.
