Fact Check: Old Video Of Polling Agent Influencing Voters Falsely Linked To 2024 Lok Sabha Polls

A video has been widely shared on social media platforms showing a woman, seemingly a polling agent, allegedly influencing two women while voting. The viral video has been linked to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The users shared the video with captions insinuating that the voters were made to vote in favour of the BJP.

In its investigation, the PTI Fact Check found that an old video dating back to 2019 was shared as recent on social media with misleading claims.

Claim

A Facebook user on April 23 shared a video of a voting agent allegedly influencing two women while voting and further claimed that this was linked to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The caption of the post read,"ऐसे होगा 400 पार". An English translation of the caption read, "400 will be crossed like this"

Below is a screenshot of the same:

Investigation

Starting the investigation, the Desk ran the video through InVid Tool Search and found several keyframes. On running one of the keyframes through Google Lens, the Desk found several posts carrying the same video with similar claims. 

Three such Facebook posts can be viewed here, here and here and the archive links for the same can be viewed here, here and here respectively.

Two such X posts can be viewed here and here and archive links can be viewed here and here respectively.

On further scanning the search results, the Desk came across another X post by Vinod Sharma, Political Editor at Hindustan Times, dated May 15, 2019.

The caption of the post read: "Another achievement #ElectionCommission. Shocking to say the least."

Here is the link and archive link to the post, and below is a screenshot of the same:

On further scanning the search results, the Desk conducted a customised keyword search on Google and came across a YouTube video uploaded by the official channel of Siasat Daily.

The description of the video shared on May 18, 2019 read: "A video filmed inside a polling booth showed a woman polling agent trying to influence voting in West Bengal"

Here is the link to the video and below is a screenshot of the same:

The Desk noticed that this was the same video as the one shared in social media posts recently. Below is a combination image comparing the visuals of the two videos:

The Desk further tried to trace the origin of the video, but could not find any report on the incident. However, it was established that the video dated back to at least 2019 and was shared as recent with misleading claims. 

CLAIM

A video of a woman polling agent influencing voters in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

FACT

The video dates back to at least 2019 and is reportedly from West Bengal.

CONCLUSION

Several social media users shared a video of a woman polling agent allegedly influencing two women voters and used captions to suggest that this was how the BJP was planning to cross the 400-seat mark in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. In its investigation, the Desk found the video dated back to at least 2019 and was reportedly from West Bengal. The video was shared on social media with misleading claims.

(This story was originally published by PTI Fact Check, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)