This Image of a BJP Leader Asking for Votes is Neither Recent, Nor From Gujarat

The photograph was taken during the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections.

Fact-Check | An old image showing a person asking for votes by touching the feet of an elderly woman is from Delhi, not Gujarat.

(Photo: The Quint)

A photograph showing a person touching the feet of an older woman has gone viral on social media.

What is the claim?: People sharing the image have claimed that it shows a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Gujarat begging for votes ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

• It goes on to take a dig at the party to say that despite being in power for 27 years, leaders 'need to plead for votes'.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of more such posts can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: The person in the image is BJP's ex-Vikaspuri MLA Sanjay Singh, who was also the party's candidate from the same constituency for the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections. The picture was taken during his campaigning for the polls in the national capital.

How did we find that out?: A reverse image search on the photograph led us to the same image published on Hindi news website, OneIndia Hindi.

• According to the report from 2020, the person asking for votes was the party's candidate – Sanjay Singh – from Delhi's Vikaspuri constituency.

A link to the story can be found here.

(Source: One India Hindi/Screenshot)

• The report added that Singh was seen campaigning in the Shiv Vihar area, where he asked for votes by touching the feet of the voters.

• We also found a tweet shared on 6 February 2020 from a member of the Indian National Congress that carried the same photograph.

• The previous Assembly elections in Delhi were held on 8 February 2020.

Who is Sanjay Singh?: Singh was an MLA from Vikaspuri from 2015 to 2020 and lost in the 2020 elections to Mahinder Yadav of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

• The report carried a video of Singh in which he talks about his campaign.

• We also found videos and photographs from Singh's social media from February 2020 that showed him campaigning while touching people's feet.

Conclusion: An old image showing a BJP Delhi leader asking for votes by touching people's feet is going viral as one from Gujarat.

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