Fake BBC survey claims 130 to 142 seats for BJP in Karnataka Assembly elections; Fact Check

As elections to the Karnataka Assembly are due on May 10, 2023, several claims have emerged of surveys being conducted to show a majority win for either of the two major political parties in fray.

One such claim cited BBC and stated that a pre-poll survey predicted that the BJP could win between 130 – 142 seats in the elections. It gives a URL link “www.bbc.com%2Fhindi%2Ftopics.”
The claim is being shared widely on social media here and here. The caption reads:”*BBC Survey: BJP will return to power in Karnataka with massive majority, Surveys say Ruling Party will win 140+ seats in Karnataka polls*”

It also predicts that the BJP could get 130 – 142 seats, Congress could get 58 – 66 seats, Janata Dal (Secular) could get 22 – 29 seats, and 1 – 3 for Others out of 224 seats. It may be noted that the majority for any party will be 113 seats to form the government.

FACT CHECK

Since such claims before the elections are common, the digiteye India took it up for fact-checking. A simple search on Google showed no such survey being conducted the BBC on the upcoming Karnataka assembly election. Secondly, the URL link given in the claim leads to the home page of BBC Hindi, that doesn’t show any such survey.

Further search on social media showed that BBC has issued a statement denying conducting any survey to the effect as below:

A fake survey on Karnataka polls has been circulating on Whats App and claims to be from BBC News. We’d like to make absolutely clear that it’s a #fake and does not come from the BBC. The BBC does not commission pre-election surveys in India. #fakenews

— BBC News India (@BBCIndia) May 7, 2018

Since BBC clearly denied that it never conducts such pre-election surveys in India, the viral claim is false.

In fact, another survey in the name of Janata Ki Baat was also shared earlier that was false just at the first glance as its numbers do not even add up.

There’s another fake BBC Survey image doing the round on WhatsApp in India. To confirm, the BBC has conducted no such survey for the #Karnataka election pic.twitter.com/0pHlzM21rM

— Trushar Barot (@Trushar) May 7, 2018

Claim: BBC survey shows BJP winning 130 to 142 seats in forthcoming Karnataka elections.
Conclusion: BBC never conducted any such survey and the claim is false.
Rating: Totally False —