Fake list viral to show majority AAP candidates for Delhi elections are Muslims

Ahead of Delhi Legislative Assembly elections set to be held on February 8, 2020, an alleged list of 27 Aam Aadmi Party candidates has been circulating on social media. According to the list, 21 out of 27 candidates hail from the Muslim community.

On January 11, Facebook page Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh posted the viral list and wrote in Hindi, “Is this list from Delhi or Lahore *Aam Aadmi Party’s first list of Delhi assembly released * (followed by the list) Kejriwal aka Kejruddin, wants to turn Delhi into Pakistan. Everything is in front of you  [Translted from: दिल्ली की लिस्ट है या लाहौर की? *आम आदमी पार्टी की दिल्ली विधानसभा की पहली लिस्ट जारी की* …. केजरीवाल उर्फ केजरुद्दीन दिल्ली को पाकिस्तान बनाना चाह रहे हैं l सब आपके सामने है…]”

This list is also being circulated on WhatsApp as a text message.

FAKE LIST VIRAL

Alt News found that the viral list is fake. Most of the candidate names have been changed and presented on social media. On January 14, Ankit Lal, social media and IT strategist for AAP tweeted the final list of MLA candidates for the 70 seats of Delhi assembly.

Final list of MLA candidates for the 70 seats of Delhi assembly.

Best of luck to each of them.

The team will work hard to ensure victory for each of them. pic.twitter.com/jmEuOW589f

— Ankit Lal (@AnkitLal) January 14, 2020

AAP Twitter account also posted the full list along with photographs of all candidates in a tweet thread.

Assembly wise list of #AAPkeCandidates.

Congratulations to all candidates and all the best for the upcoming election.

(Part 1/N) pic.twitter.com/EqXVJ5lzfA

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 14, 2020

Several media outlet including Hindustan Times, The Wire, Times of India, News 18 and ANI covered the news on January 14. One of the highlights of these reports was that AAP had dropped 15 sitting MLAs and offered the ticket to several new faces. According to the Hindustan Times, 23 new candidates were on the list.

Alt News compared the names listed in the viral text and official list shared by AAP (table below). In the viral text, only eight names are correct while the remaining are fictional Muslim names. The correct names include Arvind Kejriwal, Padpadganj Manish Sisodia, Praveen Kumar, Sanjeev Jha, Atishi Marlena, Somnath Bharti, Amanatullah Khan and Imran Hussain. All other names on the list are fictional.

[table id=4 /]

The viral text message therefore grossly misinforms the readers that the majority of AAP MLA candidates are from the Muslim community.

Several social media users have shared the fake list of AAP candidates on Twitter and Facebook.