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| - Fact Check: When a sofa failed to cushion Akhilesh against social media dig
Social media users are claiming that Akhilesh Yadav carried his own sofa while visiting a poor family. India Today's Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found these claims to be false.
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India Today Fact Check
The picture was taken on November 3 when Akhilesh visited the family of one Mukesh Batham in Etawah’s Gija village. Batham had lost one of his sons to dengue. The sofa sets were wedding gifts he’d received for his sons.
With just months left for elections in Uttar Pradesh, netas are on a public outreach spree. Public meetings are being held every day, and political leaders are visiting the most interior regions to garner support. At the same time, supporters of different parties are leaving no chance to take potshots at their rivals.
Amid this, an image of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav meeting some people is circulating on social media. The picture shows the former UP chief minister sitting on a sofa talking to another man while others stand behind.
Sharing the image, social media users are claiming that Akhilesh carried his own sofa while visiting a poor family. Sarcastic comments such as “This is leadership” and “Yogi needs to learn from him” have accompanied the picture.
Politicians such as Indian Youth Congress national president Srinivas BV and UP BJP chief Swatantrata Dev Singh also took digs at Akhilesh with the picture.
However, India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found these claims to be false. The sofa sets are owned by the man seen talking to Akhilesh in the viral picture.
AFWA probe
We did a reverse image search on Yandex and traced the picture in question. It was tweeted by Akhilesh himself on November 3. The tweet in Hindi roughly translates to, “The village in Etawah where the CM conducted ‘Covid tourism’ and claimed perfect medical facilities has exposed the reality. One of the villages here is badly affected by dengue leading to several deaths. The sleeping government needs to pay immediate attention.”
‘ ’ ,
! pic.twitter.com/2cEqxynG7A— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) November 3, 2021
A further search on the Internet led to an article which said on November 3, Akhilesh reached out to a man in Gija village under Saifai tehsil of Etawah, who lost his son to dengue. The report said Mukesh Batham, the man seen facing Akhilesh in the picture, has rubbished claims of the SP chief carrying his own sofa.
Uttar Pradesh has seen an outbreak of dengue in recent days.
The sofa controversy
For further clarification on the picture, we reached out to our Etawah correspondent. He went to the Batham residence and Mukesh confirmed that he owns both sofa sets at the centre of controversy. Our correspondent also sent us current images of Mukesh’s household, including the said sofa sets.
Batham said he received the white and brown sofa as a wedding gift for his son who passed away months ago in dengue. This was the sofa where Akhilesh was seen seated. The other sofa set was also a wedding gift for another son.
An “Aaj Tak” article also confirmed Batham’s version that Akhilesh did not carry any sofa with him.
Therefore, it can be confirmed that the viral claims are false.
(Inputs from Riddhish Dutta in Kolkata and Amit Tiwari in Etawah)
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