By Anmol Alphonso
A set of photos claiming to show an opinion poll survey conducted by the polling agency Axis My India on the Lok Sabha 2024 elections are fake, and have not been released by the agency.
The photos falsely claim to show leaked documents of Axis My India projecting that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be losing seats they had previously held to the I.N.D.I.A alliance and would fall short of the majority mark of 272 seats in parliament.
BOOM spoke to Axis My India who denied the viral claim and stated that they haven't released any opinion poll survey as being claimed.
The first phase of voting in the Lok Sabha 2024 election begins on April 19, 2024, and covers 102 constituencies across 21 states and Union Territories. There are total 7 phases of voting and the results would be declared on June 4, 2024.
The viral photos claiming to be from Axis My India are being shared on X. X user @amoxcicillin1 posted two photos which claimed they were opinion poll survey documents from Axis My India with the caption, "BREAKING NEWS. This Opinion Poll from AMI is circulating on social media which is claiming that BJP is well short of majority in 2024. BJP 215 (NDA = 248) INC 118 (INDIA = 236). This survey shows loss of seats for BJP in dozens of states. And projecting the game open. This is an alleged survey getting viral on social media, no authenticity proven yet."
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
Another X handle @newt0nlaws, posted two photos of documents claiming to be from Axis My India with the caption, "BJP losing big (94 Seats) in almost every States as of now. (AXIS MY INDIA). Delhi (-4) Bihar (-10) Haryana (-6) Rajasthan (-9) Karnataka (-14) Jharkhand (-5) West Bengal (-7) Maharashtra (-13) Uttar Pradesh (-8) Madhya Pradesh (-5) The Game is on, INDIA is coming"
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the set of photos claiming to be from Axis My India are fake and have not been published by the polling agency as being claimed on social media.
On running a keyword search on Google, we did not find any such opinion poll put out recently by Axis My India.
BOOM then reached out to the Indian polling agency Axis My India who confirmed that the viral photos are fake and no such opinion poll has been published on the Lok Sabha 2024 elections by the agency.
"This has not been released by us. We don’t do any opinion polls and our exit poll results will be released on 1 June after 6.30pm," Girish Upadhyay, Chief Marketing Officer, Axis My India, told us via email on the viral photos being falsely attributed to the agency.
We also reached out to Pradeep Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Axis My India, who also confirmed that the viral photos are fake and directed us to the official press release posted by the polling agency on X.
Axis My India's official X handle posted a press release on April 19, 2024, that reads, "This is to inform you all that Axis My India never publishes any kind of pre-poll / opinion poll. This will hold true for the entire period till the exit polls are released by us after the elections as per ECI guidelines, on June 1 at 6.30 pm. Also, there is nothing called internal / external report."
Click here to view an archive.
BOOM has previously debunked several such fake polling surveys that have gone viral on social media falsely attributing them to polling agencies before an election.
