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| - Viral Test: Big B, Madhuri Dixit campaigning For Imran Khan?
An image of a poster has gone viral online. The poster suggests that Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit will campaign for Imran Khan in upcoming elections.
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India Today Fact Check
There's nothing new in Bollywood's connection with Indian politics. But if stars from the Mumbai Tinseltown are seen campaigning for election candidates in Pakistan, that surely is going to raise eyebrows on both sides of the border.
And it did when a poster showing Bollywood icons Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit circulated on social media recently. This colourful banner carried images of younger-looking Bachchan and Dixit on its sides, with the cricket bat symbol of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the middle.
The poster has gone viral on social platforms, unleashing rumours that the flamboyant Pakistani politician has roped in Indian superstars for the July 25 election campaign.
It also had pictures of two unknown people, with Urdu captions below identifying them as Sardar Abbas Dogar and Sardar Owais Dogar.
To the casual eye, it leaves an impression that one of the Dogars was probably a candidate. The header reads like a catchy election couplet in Urdu: "Main Jhukha Nahin, Main Bika Nahin, Kahin Chupp Chuppa Ke Khada Nahin. Jo Dattey Huey Hain Ladai Ke Maidan Me Mujhe Un Logon Mein Talash Kar".
According to many Twitter users, the poster originated from the Pakistani city of Multan.
A PTI candidate has pics (apparently a couple of decades old) of Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit on his election poster pic.twitter.com/bzDGchEAvW omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) July 22, 2018
Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit have made it to #PakistanElections. Photo via @amarguriro pic.twitter.com/LxWfK70dqK Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) July 22, 2018
Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit have made it to #PakistanElections.#___#sindhkiawazppp#ikramullahgandapur#cokestudio11 #MondayMotivaton pic.twitter.com/t3f4Ep20Hl Saahira Khan (@khanSaahira) July 22, 2018
India Today's Viral Test team started looking for clues. We first checked out candidate lists of all political parties in the fray in Multan.
The Viral Test found nobody by the name of Sardar Abbas Dogar or Sardar Owais Dogar fighting elections from any group in the region, let alone the PTI.
Pictures of the so-called nominees also didn't match any of the officially-announced representatives.
Local journalist Nasir Zaheer of Aaj news also confirmed to India Today's Viral Test that neither the names on the poster nor the images it carried resembled any candidate of any political party in Multan.
As per Pakistan's poll guidelines, a campaign poster must have a code issued by the country's election commission. Our crew found it to be missing on the banner depicting Bachchan and Dixit images.
India Today next spoke to Anila Khwaja, a spokesman for the PTI. Khwaja denied that the poster belonged to her party.
Instead, she claimed such material was put up to malign party reputation by falsely suggesting that the PTI has hired Bollywood stars for its campaign because of desperation.
The Bachchan-Dixit posters tested negative for the Pakistani campaign.
Watch | Pakistan general election: 106 million voters to elect 13th government on July 25
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