Following Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Smriti Irani’s defeat to Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, a post went viral claiming that a woman, standing to collect benefits under the Congress' promised election schemes had died due the heatwave in North India.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
Is this true?: The claim is false. Amethi police denied this on their X page.
Additionally, there are no news reports that state that a person had died in Amethi while in a queue to collect the money under Congress’s scheme.
How did we find out?: We conducted a relevant keyword search and found no reports to verify the claim.
Another keyword search led us to a post on X by Amethi police. They had replied to a user who had posted the claim.
The police said, “There was no death of any woman near the Congress office. Please do not spread misleading news.”
Additional information: Several Muslim women went to congress’s office in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh to demand the benefits of the party’s poll guarantee, according to news agency IANS and media organisation India Today.
India Today reported while a few women requested 'guarantee cards', others who had already received them previously filled out forms to have the funds deposited into their accounts.
Some women stated that the Congress office gave them receipts upon submitting their forms containing the necessary information to access the funds.
IANS wrote, “We came here because we were supposed to receive 8,500 rupees monthly.”
What is the Mahalakshmi Scheme?: According to the Congress manifesto, the party had resolved to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme to provide one lakh rupees per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer, if they were to come to power.
The funds were supposed to be transferred directly to the bank account of the eldest female in the household. If no female is present, the transfer will be made to the account of the eldest family member.
Conclusion: The viral claim is false. No such incident has been reported.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)