Fact Check: Viral Photo Of Tamil Nadu BJP Chief Getting "1 Vote" Is Fake

With the Lok Sabha election results coming as a surprise to everyone, belying exit polls and political analysts alike, a newscard, purportedly showing TN BJP Chief K Annamalai receiving only 1 vote in a particular voting booth in Coimbatore, has gone viral on social media. 

Sharing the image on social media, several users mocked Annamalai for failing to get the confidence of the  people of Coimbatore. 

X Handle @SurrbhiM was among the many who shared the image, writing, "Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai got 1 vote in a booth. Media also told that he is the future BJP's PM candidate". (Archived Link)

Many other users also shared the same image on social media, as can be seen here, here.

Fact Check/ Verification

A reverse image search of the viral letter showed that it was shared by Praveen Raj, social media in charge of Tamil Nadu's BJP youth wing, calling it out as edited.

Upon further probe, we found that the same image was shared by Sun News on X, stating that the DMK candidate Ganapathi Rajkumar was leading after the initial round of vote counting for the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency.

In the notice shared by Sun News, it can be seen that 101 votes were recorded for Annamalai in booth 'BCUAF 07464'.  

A comparison of the viral image with the image shared by Sun News reveals that all the elements of the two images are same.

Conclusion

Thus it is clear that the image showing only one vote for K Annamalai in a Coimbatore voting booth, is edited.

Result: Altered Photo

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