DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A screenshot of a graphic depicting the percentage of votes for political parties in Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency is being shared on social media with a claim that it was India Today’s recent exit poll predicting a clear win for Amritsar Lok Sabha candidate and former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
It’s @SandhuTaranjitS for Amritsar ✅️ pic.twitter.com/sFay14NPu6
— Michael Rahul (@I_m_michael_asr) May 27, 2024
The graphic shows that the BJP candidate is winning with a 33% vote share, followed by the Congress candidate getting 28%, while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate is third with 25% vote share. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was projected to be getting merely 10% in the vote share in the screenshot.
BJP candidate Sandhu is fielded against Gurjeet Singh Aujla from Congress, AAP’s Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Anil Joshi from SAD in Amritsar. Many X users shared the tweet tagging Taranjit Singh Sandhu as seen here and here.
FACT-CHECK
To begin with, no exit poll can claim to have been conducted before the polling day, which is scheduled to be held on June 1, 2024, while the claim was shared on May 27, 2024. As per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, no exit polls can be aired on TV or published before 6.30 pm on June 1, 2024, which is the closing time for the last phase of polling in 2024 elections.
We further checked India Today’s official website and other social media handles, we found a denial issued by Rahul Kanwal, news director of India Today and Aaj Tak on X on May 28, stating: “We realise that there’s a lot of interest in the results of the @IndiaToday Axis My India exit poll. But please be certain that any ‘poll’ you see before 6:30 pm on June 1 is fake. It’s good to have so much buzz around our poll, but we don’t want that there be any confusion as a result. BEWARE FAKE POLLS. See you on June 1 at 5 pm (sic).”
We realise that there’s a lot of interest in the results of the @IndiaToday Axis My India exit poll. But please be certain that any ‘poll’ you see before 6:30 pm on June 1 is fake. It’s good to have so much buzz around our poll, but we don’t want that there be any confusion as a… pic.twitter.com/BDwZDsFKr9
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) May 28, 2024
Hence, the claim that the graphic shows India Today’s exit poll, predicting Sandhu’s win in the Lok Sabha constituency of Amritsar is false.
Claim: India Today Exit Poll projections show BJP candidate Taranjit Singh Sandhi is winning in Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency.
Conclusion: The claim is false. The graphic claiming to show India Today’s exit poll prediction for the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency is fabricated.
