Congress leader shares 'fake' crowd images at Bharat Jodo Yatra; Netizens fact-check

The State President of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Jitendra Patwari in a now-deleted tweet posted a photograph and claimed that a huge crowd was gathered for Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka's Ballari district.

Sharing the image, the Congress leader took to Twitter and wrote, "Jansailaab umadh raha hai, pura Bharat chal raha hai (People are coming in huge numbers, almost like the whole India is walking with us).

However, soon after Jitendra Patwari, popularly known as Jitu Bhaiya in Madhya Pradesh, posted the picture claiming it to be a scene from Congress' ongoing yatra, netizens were quick in correcting him that the image was a stock photo and was originally shot in Nigeria and not during the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress party.

Fact-checking the image, a social media user posted the images of the articles which revealed that the images were actually captured in Nigeria during the Azusa Street Revival crusade.

While another user took a dig at the party leader saying, "They have no idea that there’s something like reverse image search." "And here we go, tweet deleted," the user added. 

Notably, it was not just the Madhya Pradesh leader who tweeted the wrong image, but Congress’s national coordinator Ritu Choudhary also posted two photographs with the same claim. "Rahul Gandhi is creating history. A tsunami of the crowd in Karnataka," tweeted Choudhary. however, the tweet has been deleted now. 

Jitendra Patwari repeats his mistake 

After Jitu Patwari deleted his factually wrong tweet posted on October 16, he again on October 17 shared an image with the same caption, "Jansailaab umadh raha hai, pura Bharat chal raha hai." However, this time the photo was different photo from the previously posted picture. 

However, this time as well, he missed fact-checking the image because the same picture was shared by Congress leader Mohammed Feroz Khan on October 13, 2021, claiming that the image was from 'Vidyardhi Nirudhyoga Siren' meeting held in Telangana.