India was set to elect the 543-member Lok Sabha — the lower house of the country’s legislature — in a six-week general election that started on April 19.
Analysts have long expected Modi’s BJP to win against a fractious alliance of more than two dozen parties who have yet to name a candidate for prime minister.
But Modi was hoping to increase his party’s parliamentary majority — wooing southern states where his Hindu nationalism holds little appeal.
The manipulated picture was shared in similar posts on Facebook here and here, and on social media site X.
Comments on the posts suggested some social media users believed the picture showed a genuine article from Dainik Bhaskar.
“Dainik Bhaskar report is quite positive for India block,” one wrote.
“I am agree (sic) with the survey,” another said.
Doctored picture
Dainik Bhaskar’s national editor LP Pant told AFP the picture circulating online was “edited”.
“No such survey has been published by Dainik Bhaskar,” Pant said.
Responding to a false post on X which shared the doctored picture, he posted that a “fake survey” had been created using the newspaper’s masthead (archived link).
AFP reviewed recent issues of Dainik Bhaskar on its online database and found the manipulated picture was taken from the Bhopal edition of the paper published on April 13, 2024.
Below is a screenshot of the picture in the false posts (left) and the genuine front page which AFP was able to view behind paywall (right), with the edited elements highlighted:
The original front page featured an advertisement for the BJP and a report about rain in Bhopal. These were replaced with the purported pre-election survey.
AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation swirling around India’s election here, here and here.
