An image depicting a crowd is being shared on social media with the claim that it shows the gathering at the Rashtriya Janta Dal’s (RJD) rally in Gandhi Maidan, Patna, on March 3. Several politicians from the INDIA alliance were present at the meeting, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Premium subscribed X (formerly Twitter) user Rohini Anand (@mrs_roh08) shared the viral image on March 3 with the following caption: “Tsunami of crowd at the iconic Gandhi Maidan in Patna 🔥
Over 12 lakh people joined the historic rally today.” The tweet has been viewed over 4.8 Lakh times and has been retweeted over 1,400 times. (Archive)
Tsunami of crowd at the iconic Gandhi Maidan in Patna 🔥
Over 12 lakh people joined the historic rally today. pic.twitter.com/VFq0DV4BXl
— Rohini Anand (@mrs_roh08) March 3, 2024
Other users such as Sandeep Saurav, Supriya Bhardwaj, Abdur Rahman Ansari, Reshma Alam also shared the same image with similar captions.
Fact Check
We noticed that several users pointed out under Rohini Anand’s (@mrs_roh08) tweet that the image was old.
Further, we found a tweet by user Varun Kumar Rana (@VarunKrRana) who quote-tweeted Rohini Anand’s post and shared a screenshot of a 2017 tweet by RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Actually they have been standing there since 27 August 2017 😹 https://t.co/4raWsTnbpJ pic.twitter.com/AeXWlmmu8P
— Varun Kumar Rana (@VarunKrRana) March 3, 2024
We found the same tweet on RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav’s timeline. The tweet carried the same image which is viral now and was posted on August 27, 2017.
The RJD president shared the image claiming it to be from the mega rally of RJD held in Gandhi Maidan, Patna in 2017. However, the image had been photoshopped. Alt News had fact-checked this mage back in 2017 and found the original image which was shared by Facebook user Shamsheer Ahmed.
No “Face” will stand in front of Lalu’s “Base”. Come & Count as much as u can in Gandhi Maidan, Patna #DeshBachao pic.twitter.com/sXoAcpwNKw
— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) August 27, 2017
Hence, the viral image that users are claiming to be of the crowd at Gandhi Maidan, Patna at RJD’s rally this year is false. It is a photoshopped one and has been in circulation for at least seven years.
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