By Anmol Alphonso
A video of an Islamic flag being waved in Shrirampur, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra was shared by the right-wing outlet Sudarshan News's Marathi handle with a false claim that it showed a Pakistan flag being waved by I.N.D.I.A alliance supporters after the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Nilesh Lanke won the seat.
Lanke won the Ahemdnagar Lok Sabha seat with 6,24,797 votes defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dr. Sujay Vikhepatil. The opposition lead I.N.D.I.A alliance / MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) won 30 Lok Sabha seats in the state, with the ruling BJP led NDA bagging 17 seats. The state has a total of 48 Lok Sabha seats.
The video was posted by the X handle of Sudarshan Marathi (@SudarshanNewsMH) with a Marathi caption that claims, "While celebrating Maha Vikas Aghadi's jubilation in Ward No. 2 i.e. Weston Chowk area of Srirampur, Muslim social workers waved the flag of Pakistan.. #Loksabha_Election2024 #Result"
(Original text in Marathi - श्रीरामपूरच्या वार्ड क्रमांक २ म्हणजे वेस्टन चौक भागात महाविकास आघाडीचा जल्लोष साजरा करतांना मुस्लिम समाजकंटकांनी पाकिस्तानचा झेंडा फिरवला...)
BOOM has previously fact-checked Sudarshan News for sharing anti-Muslim disinformation.
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the flag in the viral video is an Islamic flag and not Pakistan's national flag as being falsely claimed by Sudarshan Marathi.
The green flag seen in the video has a white crescent and star in the middle, which is often seen in Muharram and Eid Milad-un-Nabi processions. The Islamic flag has often been mistaken for the Pakistani flag.
The flag in the viral video also has white dots on it. Whereas, Pakistan's national flag contains a white column on the left side. A comparison between the two flags can be seen below:
Additionally, BOOM was able to geo-locate the location in the viral video to Weston Tower, Shrirampur, Ahemdnagar district, Maharashtra. The location in the viral video matches with the location on Google Maps.
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