Polling officer admits rigging in Bihar elections? No, video shot during MP bypolls viral with false claim

Indian National Congress (INC) leader Vijay Singh tweeted (archived link) a two-minute video that was originally posted by Twitter user @IndiaAwakened_ (archived link). A woman is giving an interview to the media in the clip. On November 16, Singh tweeted, “Listen to this polling officer. The entire electoral process is rigged. Seems this is how NDA got back to power in Bihar by rigging election. Entire democracy is in danger, high time we raise our voices against #BJP. #bjpkilleddemocracy @INCKarnataka.” Since then, this video has gained over 60,000 views.

Listen to this polling officer. The entire electoral process is rigged. Seems this is how NDA got back to power in Bihar by rigging election.
Entire democracy is in danger, high time we raise our voices against #BJP. #bjpkilleddemocracy @INCKarnataka pic.twitter.com/qu0NtaHDJo

— Vijay Singh (@MLCvijaysingh) November 16, 2020

The woman can be heard saying, “The first grievance was that the signature on the tags didn’t match. They said, it’s possible and avoided it. Point two, many tags didn’t have a sign. Yet, they said it’s possible and avoided it. Point three, when green paper seal didn’t match, they didn’t consult us and declared the results of that round. And without getting our signatures, they kept announcing results of other rounds. They will point out and say it’s my signature. But it was taken after announcing the results. I asked them, when should this process have taken place? It should happened prior [to announcing the results], once I’m satisfied only then the results should be announced. [Reporter asks: What next? Will you participate?] No, we will not! They are pressuring our people using the police… [who are] doing one-sided work and not listening to us…”

Similarly, Twitter user @rkhuria2 shared the video by @IndiaAwakened_ and wrote, “Listen to this polling officer. The entire electoral process is rigged. BJP controls EC, Administration, Police who declare whatever results BJP wants. Approaching Judiciary is futile!” This tweet gained about 1,400 retweets. (archived link)

Listen to this polling officer. The entire electoral process is rigged. BJP controls EC, Administration, Police who declare whatever results BJP wants. Approaching Judiciary is futile! pic.twitter.com/FP4bXaIJbr

— rkhuria2 (@rkhuria2) November 15, 2020

Alt News received several requests to authenticate the claim on our WhatsApp helpline (+917600011160) and on our official Android application. The video was also shared with Gujarati text that made a similar claim of ‘vote-counting official explaining how BJP wins elections’.

(Viral text in Gujarati: સાભળો આ બ્હેન મત ગણત્રરી ઓફીસર છે ભાજપ નો અસલી ચ્હેરો બતાવે છે સાલુ ભાજપ ની જીત કેવી રીતે મુમકીન થાય છે .પણ……વાહ)

Fact-check

At 1:00 mark, the woman mentions the following names — Sudarshan Gupta and Rajesh Sonkar. We performed a keyword search and found that Gupta and Sonkar are the names of two Madhya Pradesh-based leaders from the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

Upon performing a reverse image search using InVID, we found that the viral video was posted by Facebook page ‘I.T & Social Media Cell Congress‘ with the caption, “Indore’s Sanwer seat: First the murder of democracy and now rigging in the counting of votes! This is how BJP has won in Madhya Pradesh” (archived link). This video gained over 2,500 reactions. It is 10 seconds longer than the video posted by Twitter user @IndiaAwakened_. In the last five seconds, the woman revealed that her name is Rashmi Borasi.

(Hindi caption: इंदौर की साँवेर सीट का हाल- पहले लोकतंत्र की हत्या और अब मतगणना में धांधली..! मध्यप्रदेश में बीजेपी को इस तरह से जीत मिली है)

Upon searching this caption on Twitter, we found that the viral video was posted by MP Congress in November.

इंदौर की साँवेर सीट का हाल-

पहले लोकतंत्र की हत्या और अब मतगणना में धांधली..!

मध्यप्रदेश में बीजेपी को इस तरह से जीत मिली है। pic.twitter.com/cgw7SiqdON

— MP Congress (@INCMP) November 10, 2020

A November 10 report by ANI also included Borasi’s quote to the outlet — “The tags were mismatched and many of them did not have signatures. The pink-paper seals and green seals did not match. When we asked the officials about this, they said that these things happen and avoided our questions. The police are also not checking for mobile phones properly.”

ANI’s report is about the counting of votes in the recent Madhya Pradesh by-poll election. The counting process was paused after the 14th round on November 10 after INC’s allegations of mismanagement and unfair conduct against the polling officials. As per ANI, Borasi is the daughter of INC leader and Sanwer candidate Premchand Guddu.

The voting for by-polls in MP began on November 3. News18 reported that BJP had won 19 out of the 28 assembly constituencies thus gaining a majority in the 230-member house.

This was earlier fact-checked by The Logical Indian.

A video of an INC leader’s daughter alleging mismanagement and unfair conduct against the polling officials during MP by-polls was shared by INC leader Vijay Singh with the baseless claim that the NDA regained power in Bihar due to rigged elections.