Fact Check: Dainik Bhaskar’s Alleged Prediction of INDIA Bloc Lead in 10 States Debunked as Fake

Recently, a picture that seemed to be from the April 13 issue of the Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar started going around on social media. The first round of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was coming up soon. A pre-election study said that the INDIA bloc would win 10 states and that the National Democratic Alliance would lose all of its seats in the southern states. This was written on the front page of the screenshot that went viral.

Someone on Facebook posted the screenshot that went viral and said, “Dainik Bhaskar-Nelson Survey: In 10 states, INDIA alliance is leading & could cross 200 in these 10 states alone.” Even in places where Hindi is the main language, Modi’s image isn’t enough to get people to vote for the BJP. The NDA wants to get rid of its seats in Bihar, Bengal, and Maharashtra. #BJPbelow180. Here is a list of all the posts that went popular.

The shocking picture was also shared by the “Spirit Of Congress” X account. At the time this was written, over 80,000 people had seen it. From its past, you can see this. BJP leader Lakshmi Nair also shared the post that went viral.

Our Probe

We saw that the word “India” in Hindi was spelled wrong in the picture that went viral. Also, we saw that the Bhopal issue of the Dainik Bhaskar from April 13, 2024 was shown. The e-paper from that date was found.

On that date, no poll survey report came out. On the front page, there was instead an ad for the BJP and a story about how much rain fell in Bhopal. The popular poll report that said the INDIA bloc would win was nowhere to be found on the front pages of any other Dainik Bhaskar editions we looked through. So, it was clear that the picture that went viral had been changed.

When we checked out Dainik Bhaskar’s website and social media pages, we saw that the newspaper had said the picture was fake.

In a story on April 13, Dainik Bhaskar also called this poll fake. The pictures below also show how the front page from April 13 was changed and the fake survey was added on top of it.

Along with Nelson, the Dainik Bhaskar has not put out any pre-poll study reports. But on April 14, the paper published the first findings of its poll. A poll called “Mera Vote Meri Marzi” was taken in 12 states and 308 Lok Sabha seats. It found that 48% of people want to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi in office and 37% don’t like how unemployment is going up. As the popular screenshot said, this poll doesn’t show that the INDIA bloc will have any kind of lead in 10 states.

So, it’s clear that the screenshot going around that was claimed to Dainik Bhaskar is not real.