Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan since the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22, Pakistani politician and Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senator Saifullah Abro said in a discussion in the Pakistani parliament, “The whole of Indian Opposition is condemning the Pahalgam attack. Be it the Aam Aadmi Party of Delhi or the Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh, no one is supporting Modi. Everyone is protesting. No one supported Modi. Everyone said that this incident happened under your watch. You are already against Muslims and now you need something to shield yourself.”
Against this backdrop, a picture of Samajwadi Party national president and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is being widely circulated on social media. Users are sharing this picture and claiming that the man seen in the photo with Akhilesh Yadav is Saifullah Abro.
UP BJP Yuva Morcha social media in-charge and member of the state backward classes commission Dr. Richa Rajpoot shared this picture on Instagram and claimed, “Mr. Akhilesh’s close friend Mr. Saifullah, who was praising him in the parliament of Pakistan”. (Archived link)
On April 30, BJP MP from Godda, Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey, also shared this picture and indirectly linked Akhilesh Yadav and Saifullah with each other. He wrote in the caption, “A wave of happiness in Pakistan on Akhilesh Yadav’s anti-India statement, seems the Samajwadi Party chief will contest the next election from Islamabad?” (Archived link)
Right-wing influencers Jitendra Pratap Singh, Zeenat Rana, Arun Yadav, Sandeep Mishra and journalist Sudhir Mishra also made similar claims of Saifullah being in the alleged photo with Akhilesh Yadav. (Archived link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5,link 6)
BJP Uttar Pradesh state general secretary Sanjay Rai also posted this photo targeting Akhilesh Yadav. (Archived link)
Fact Check
Alt News started an investigation to find out who the person standing with Akhilesh Yadav was. On doing a reverse image search of the photo, we reached the personal website for one ‘Ashish Saraf‘. The photo gallery of this website had the same photo and it reads, “With Ex CM of Uttar Pradesh Sri. Akhilesh Yadav”. (Archived link)
The ‘Indian Politicians’ folder in the website’s photo gallery has pictures of the same person with many prominent Indian leaders, including former Presidents, Vice Presidents and Prime Ministers. Alt News found that the person in the picture is Ashish Saraf.
Ashish Saraf’s biography on the website states that he was born in 1965 in Nagpur in central India, and is the Chairman and CEO of international trading firm Fecor Global Private Limited, and currently travels between New Delhi, London and Singapore. (Archived link)
A report in The Hindu also mentions Ashish Saraf’s name along with his picture.
In addition to this, the Samajwadi Party Media Cell tweeted Nishikant Dubey’s post and refuted his claim, writing that the person he was calling Saifullah was actually Ashish Saraf.
भाजपा सांसद @nishikant_dubey जी आप की या भाजपा की याददाश्त कमजोर है या आप एक अच्छे व्यक्ति को बदनाम करने की कोई सुपारी लिए हुए हैं?
आप जिसे कथित सैफुल्लाह बता रहे हैं वो एक शरीफ, बेहतरीन और अच्छे इंसान आशीष सर्राफ जी हैं।
आशीष सर्राफ जी की तस्वीरें तमाम भाजपा नेताओं के साथ हैं… https://t.co/PTZ0SxKGxi pic.twitter.com/xkt6vcVIIG
— Samajwadi Party Media Cell (@mediacellsp) May 1, 2025
To sum it up, the individual posing with Akhilesh Yadav in the viral image is Ashish Saraf and not Pakistani MP Saifullah.
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