On March 31, a mega rally was organised by the INDIA bloc to showcase the unity of the Opposition against prime minister Narendra Modi-led government. The rally was organised at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan and members of Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Rashtriya Janata Dal and Shiv Sena participated in the event.
In this backdrop, an image of a huge crowd in an open area is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it shows the strength of the crowd gathered for the rally on March 31.
A social media user shared the image with the caption, “Scenes from today at the Ramlila Maidan Alliance Rally.”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral image is of a West Bengal rally held ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
On doing a Google reverse image search, we found the same image uploaded on the website India Content with a caption claiming that the image is of the Left Front rally held at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Feb 3, 2019. The photo credit was given to IANS.
People’s Dispatch, another media organisation, also shared the image on February 4, 2019. The report suggested that Kolkata witnessed a massive demonstration calling for the overthrow of Mamata Banerjee’s government in the State of West Bengal and Narendra Modi’s government in the Centre.
Alamy also uploaded the image suggesting that the rally was held ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Hence, we can ascertain that the viral image is old.
