Claim
Users share a screenshot of an X post by PM Narendra Modi criticising the Election Commission of India (ECI), saying that the PM has announced his support for senior Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s protest against the ECI over alleged electoral malpractices.
The archived version of the post can be seen here, which has clocked 15.2K views so far. We received this claim on our Whatsapp tipline (+91-9999499044), too, requesting us to fact-check it.
‘Vote-Chori’ Row Heats Up
Amid high drama, the Delhi Police on August 11 had detained and later released INDIA bloc leaders, including Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Trinamool Congress’ Sagarika Ghose and Shiv Sena (UBT’s) Sanjay Raut, along with others, for staging a protest march from Parliament to the ECI headquarters. The march was held to oppose the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections and to raise concerns over the alleged “vote theft” in favour of the ruling BJP during last year’s Lok Sabha polls. The BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the accusations.
Fact
Newschecker noticed that the purported X post by PM Narendra Modi was dated May 8, 2014, following which we ran a relevant keyword search on the social media platform that led us to the same post.
We came across multiple news reports from major Indian media outlets on May 8, 2014, seen here, here, here and here, saying that the then BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi took to X to express his disappointment over being denied permission for holding a [election] rally in Varanasi.
“India’s main opposition BJP is holding a protest in Varanasi city after its leader Narendra Modi was denied permission to hold a rally there…The Election Commission on Wednesday denied permission for the rally citing security concerns. Mr Modi is contesting the Varanasi seat in the general election. In early morning tweets on Thursday, Mr Modi accused the election authorities of bias,” read a May 8, 2014 BBC report, sharing the X post, which further confirmed that the viral screenshot was being shared out of context and to mock the BJP’s stance regarding the ongoing “vote-theft’ claims by the Opposition.
Sources
X post, PM Narendra Modi, May 8, 2014
Indian Express report, May 8, 2014
BBC report, May 8, 2014
