Multiple social media users shared a purported screenshot of a Hindi newspaper, which showed that four candidates, including BJP’s Navneet Rana, Ajay Teni and Madhavi Latha and Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar, lost by exactly 19,731 votes in their respective constituencies in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. In its investigation, the PTI Fact Check Desk found that a newspaper clipping was digitally altered to change the figures and was shared on social media with false claim.
Apart from Navneet Rana, all the other candidates highlighted in the clipping lost by a margin of more than 30,000 votes.
Claim:
A Facebook user shared on June 5 shared a screenshot of a Hindi newspaper, according to which four candidates, including BJP’s Navneet Rana, Ajay Teni and Madhavi Latha and Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar, lost their respective seats by 19,731 votes each in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
The caption of the post read, “लोगों को अखबार ध्यान से पढ़ना चाहिए‼️ इसमें चार उम्मीदवार एक समान संख्या के वोटों से जीते हैं और हारे हैं..19731 का आंकड़ा क्या कहता है ?ये संयोग है की प्रयोग ?
ईवीएम और चुनाव आयोग की विश्वसनीयता लोगों के बीच बरकरार रखने इस प्रकार की परिणाम का सावधानी से अवलोकन किया जाना चाहिए.. ईवीएम में कोई तो सेंटिंग है! इसलिए मैं बार बार कहता हूं ईवीएम हमेशा के लिए रद्द की ही जानी चाहिए!”
An English translation of the post read, “People should read the newspaper carefully‼️ In this, four candidates won and lost by the same number of votes.. What does the figure of 19731 say? Is this a coincidence or an experiment?
To maintain the credibility of EVMs and Election Commission among the people, such results should be carefully observed.. There is some center in EVMs! That’s why I say again and again that EVMs should be canceled forever!”
Here is the link and archive link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same:
Investigation
On running the viral screenshot through Google Lens, the Desk found that it was shared by several other users with similar claims.
Three such posts can be seen here, here and here, and their archived versions can be viewed here, here and here, respectively:
While going through the comments, the Desk noticed several users mentioning that the viral screenshot showed the wrong data. Below is a screenshot of the same:
Taking a cue from this the Desk scanned the official website of the Election Commision of India, and found that BJP candidate from Amravati Navneet Rana did lose by 19,731 votes to Congress candidate Balwant Basawant Wankhade.
Here is the link to the website, and below is a screenshot of the same:
However, we found that BJP’s Ajay Teni, who contested against Utkarsh Verma of the Samajwadi Party, was defeated by 34,329 votes in Kheri, Uttar Pradesh.
We then scanned results for Madhavi Latha, BJP candidate from Hyderabad who contested against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, and found that she lost by a margin of over 3.38 lakh votes.
Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar was defeated by BJP’s Manoj Tiwari by over 1.38 lakh votes.
On further scanning the Google Lens results, the Desk found that a clipping of a report similar to the viral screenshot published by the Rajastan Patrika.
Here is the link to the e-paper and below is a screenshot of the same:
Subsequently, the Desk found that the viral screenshot was fake and the claim shared with the screenshot in social media posts was false.
Conclusion: Several social media users shared a screenshot of a Hindi newspaper, which showed that four candidates – BJP’s Navneet Rana, Ajay Teni and Madhavi Latha, and Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar – lost their respective seats by the same margin of 19,731 votes in the recent Lok Sabha polls. In its investigation, the Desk found that a digitally altered screenshot of a newspaper with wrong figures was shared on social media with false claim.
(This fact check story was originally published by PTI Fact Check and was republished by Lighthouse Journalism as a part of Shakti Collective.)
