By Anmol Alphonso
A graphic claiming to show an India Today exit poll for the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, showing the BJP candidate ahead of the AAP and Congress candidates, is fake.
BOOM found that India Today has not released any such exit poll for Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency. All 13 seats of Punjab, including Amritsar, go to the polls on June 1, 2024, during the last phase, with the results to be declared on June 4, 2024. Punjab will witness a four cornered fight between AAP, Congress, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal.
The viral graphic shows the BJP leading with 33% vote share, then followed by AAP with 25%, Congress with 28%, and SAD with 10%. The graphic is being shared on X with the caption tagging the BJP candidate Tranjit Singh Sandhu reading, "It's @SandhuTaranjitS for Amritsar".
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral graphic claiming to show BJP Amritsar Lok Sabha candidate Tranjit Singh Sandhu leading, is fake.
India Today has not relased any exit poll either for the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency or any other seat. The Election Commission of India has banned exit polls from being published till 6.30 pm June 1, 2024, which is the last day of voting.
Rahul Kanwal, News Director - Aaj Tak and India Today, also posted the viral graphic and rubbished the claim that it was released by the channel.
Kanwal wrote, "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."
Additionally, the template of the viral graphic is similar to an exit poll graphic that was released by India Today during the 2022 Punjab assembly elections.
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