Lighthouse Journalism came across a picture being widely shared on various social media platforms, including WhatsApp. It was claimed along with the picture that President Droupadi Murmu accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi while he filed nomination for Lok Sabha elections, users also questioned if it is ethically correct for the President to accompany a candidate. During investigation we found the claim to be false. The picture is from 2022, when Droupadi Murmu filed her presidential nomination.
Claim:
X user Adv I W Shaikh shared the picture along with the claim on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the picture with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on the picture.
We found that the picture was shared on the X (formerly Twitter) profile of PM Narendra Modi.
The tweet from June 24, 2022 suggested that the picture was actually from the filing of nomination papers of Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.
The picture was also shared on PM Narendra Modi’s Instagram profile with the same caption.
The picture was also shared on several other platforms including media organizations in 2022.
We also found a video of the same.
We also checked whether PM Narendra Modi has filed his nomination for Lok Sabha elections.
We found news reports suggesting that PM Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi and will file his nomination on 14th May. He has not yet filed his nomination.
Conclusion: President Droupadi Murmu did not accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi while he filed his nomination for Lok Sabha elections. Viral image is from 2022, when leaders accompanied Droupadi Murmu to file her nomination for presidential elections. Viral claim is false.
