IANS Falls for Fake WhatsApp Post, Claims AIMIM Helped BJP Win 165 Seats in UP

As per the ECI website, there were only 18 seats in which BJP+ won by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

A social media post which claims that All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win in 165 seats in the recently-concluded 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections with a margin of less than 2,000 votes is going viral.

The claim states that Asaduddin Owaisi's party cut into Samajwadi Party's (SP) votes in these seats to help the BJP.

This claim was picked up by news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) which carried a story quoting figures from the viral post. The IANS article was then carried by several mainstream news organisations.

However, we found that the claims made in the viral post were false.

As per the results available on the Election Commission of India's (ECI) website, there were only 29 seats in which a candidate won by a margin of less than 2,000 votes. The BJP won by a margin of less than 2,000 votes in just 18 of those seats.

Secondly, the claim that AIMIM helped BJP in 165 seats also falls flat as AIMIM contested on only 95 seats.

The BJP won 255 out of 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh and the SP came second in the race with 111 seats. While AIMIM managed to get more votes than the previous elections, it was unsuccessful in getting any seat.

CLAIM

The viral message states the following:

• 7 seats with difference of 200 votes

• 23 seats with difference of 500 votes

• 49 seats with difference of 1000 votes

• 86 seats with difference of 2000 votes

It then goes on to say, "In all the above, ASADUDDIN Owaisi has generously helped the BJP. He deserves Bharat Ratna award! (sic)"

The same claim was shared widely on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some of which can be found here and here. We also found that the claim was being shared on WhatsApp.

News agency IANS published a story based on the numbers mentioned in the viral post and that was carried by other news organisations, such as The Times of India, Zee News, Republic etc.

The report in TOI was later edited and the bit quoting from viral message was removed.

DID BJP WIN 165 SEATS WITH A MARGIN OF LESS THAN 2000 VOTES?

We scourged through the data available on the Election Commission of India's (ECI) website. According to the results, there were no seats in which a party won by a margin of less than 200 votes. The narrowest victory margin was registered in Dhampur Assembly constituency in Bijnor district, where BJP's Ashok Kumar Rana defeated SP's Naeem-ul-Hasan by 203 votes.

The second claim suggested that 23 seats were won by the BJP with a margin of less than 500 votes.

However, that too is incorrect as a total of 11 seats were won in this category, which included wins by both the BJP and the SP.

Only four seats were won by a party with a margin of less than 1,000 votes and more than 500 votes, while the claim put the number at 49.

According to the results, out of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, in total 29 seats were won by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

Of these 29, the BJP won 15 seats, SP won 10 seats, Apna Dal (Soneylal) won two seats, NISHAD party got one and the Indian National Congress (INC) won one seat.

So, in total BJP+ (BJP and its allies Apna Dal and NISHAD party) won 18 seats by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

Therefore, the claim that the BJP won 165 seats with a margin of less than 2,000 votes is false.

It's important to note that some claims were unclear about the total number of seats the BJP won with a vote margin of less than 2,000 votes. However, the claim that the BJP won 86 seats (and not 165) with a margin of less than 2,000 votes is also wildly exaggerated.

WHERE DID AIMIM CUT SP'S VOTES?

The Quint had previously analysed the data from the 2022 UP election results and had found that the AIMIM cut into the SP's share on only seven seats: Bijnor, Moradabad Nagar, Sultanpur, Kursi, Aurai, Nakur, and Shahganj.

The Quint's analysis had found that Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did the SP most damage by cutting into the Akhilesh Yadav-led party's votes on 27 seats.

Clearly a made up claim about the UP election results was shared on social media platforms, which was also amplified by the media, to claim that AIMIM helped BJP win in 165 seats.

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