As India is all set to vote in upcoming general elections, several videos are being shared with misleading claims. Lighthouse Journalism found one such video being widely shared on social media platforms, it was being claimed that even if the model code of conduct has been enforced, Aam Aadmi Party hoardings were removed, whereas BJP flags were not. During the investigation we found the claim to be misleading. The video is old and not recent.
Claim:
X user Sakshi Gupta AAP shared the video along with the claim.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the video with same claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by closely observing the video. The video had an Instagram watermark, ‘NSUI Rajasthan Official’.
We searched for this video on the Instagram channel of NSUI Rajasthan.
The video was posted by the handle on January 14.
The caption of the reel suggested that the banners being removed were those of the BJP itself.
We found the same video on their Facebook profile too.
We closely looked at the posters being removed, the name on the posters suggested that these were of Vinod Jakhar.
We found a news report from January, when Vinod Jakhar reached Jaipur to meet students of the RAS Mains Exam.
We found news reports of posters being removed as model code of conduct kicks in.
In the next step of investigation we reached out to Vinod Jakhar, NSUI state president, Rajasthan over phone. He said, “Upon my arrival in Jaipur following my election as state president, NSUI volunteers had adorned the city with my posters. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation had been duly notified. Despite repeated requests, all the posters were taken down. Some were even removed in my presence, yet the BJP flags remained untouched.“
Conclusion: Old video showing removal of posters of NSUI leader Vinod Jakhar in January, 2024 being shared with claims that AAP posters were removed while BJP flags were not amidst the imposition of model code of conduct. Viral claim is misleading.
