Morphed: Akhilesh Yadav congratulated on the possibility of becoming PM

A Facebook page ‘PMO India : Report Card’ shared a photograph of a billboard that seemed to congratulate former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on the “possibility” of becoming the Prime Minister. The post was liked over 8,600 times and shared by more than 2,500 people at the time of writing this article. The hoarding said, “प्रधानमंत्री बनने की हार्दिक सम्भावना श्री अखिलेश यादव | शुभ अखिलेश, खुश देश, खुश प्रदेश | निवेदक – सुनील सिंह ‘साजन’ एम.एल.सी, लखनऊ उन्नाव | (The possibility of becoming the Prime Minister Shri Akhilesh Yadav. Auspicious Akhilesh, happy country, happy state. Advertiser – Sunil Singh ‘Sajan’ MLC, Lucknow Unnao.)”

Several individual users and Facebook pages also circulated the imagery.

A few Twitter users have also shared the photograph of the hoarding.

A journalist with The Hindu, Nistula Hebbar, also circulated the image of the hoarding while tweeting, “Can Hindi pundits (who poke holes in other non Hindi speakers’ Hindi posts) please explain this…?’

Photoshopped

Alt News found images of the same hoarding with a different text shared by social media users in January 2019. “नव वर्ष की हार्दिक संभावना श्री अखिलेश यादव (A heartfelt possibility of the new year Shri Akhilesh Yadav.)” – read the actual text of the billboard. It appears that the hoarding was installed with a grammatical error in the sentence. Instead of the word ‘संभावना (possibility)’, the hoarding should’ve carried the word ‘शुभकामनाएं (best wishes).’

The distinction in the text on the two hoardings is evident in the photo montage below.

SP’s Sunil Singh Yadav, MLC Lucknow and Unnao, whose name was mentioned on the billboard, called out the misinformation on Twitter. He wrote in Hindi, “After being boycotted by the public, BJP’s IT cell (internet terrorist)l, which is trying to capture EVMs, has stooped low. They have meddled with an old hoarding of mine and circulating rumours. Such cheap tactics will not weaken but strengthen society’s fight.”

जनता से दुत्कारे जाने के बाद #ईवीएम हथियाने के जुगाड़ पर लगी #भाजपा की आईटी (इंटरनेट टेररिस्ट) सेल नीचता पर उतर आई है। मेरी पुरानी होर्डिंग में छेड़छाड़ कर अफ़वाह फैला रहे हैं। इन घटिया हरकतों से समाजिक न्याय की लड़ाई कमजोर नही और मजबूत होगी। pic.twitter.com/ww5QKoexMh

— Sunil Singh Yadav (@sunilyadv_unnao) May 22, 2019

Earlier, Alt News had debunked photoshopped images of hoardings targetting Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal.