2016 Image of Owaisi & Smriti Irani Falsely Linked to GHMC Polls

The image is from a ‘Powerloom Industry Stakeholders’ Meeting’ in which both the leaders participated.

An old image has been revived as recent in context of the recently held GHMC polls.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of Union Minister Smriti Irani and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi is being shared in the backdrop of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls that were held on Tuesday, 1 December.

However, we found that the image dates back to 2016 and is from a ‘Powerloom Industry Stakeholders’ Meeting’ in which both the leaders participated.

CLAIM

The social media posts showed the image of Owaisi with Irani and mentioned: “Owaisi met Smriti Irani. Owaisi asks people to vote for BJP in LokSabha elections. And some fools think Owaisi is a saviour of Muslims. (sic)”

You can view the archived version here.

Several social media users shared the image on Twitter and Facebook linking it to the GHMC polls.

You can view the archived version here.

You can view the archived version here.

You can view the archived version here.

WHAT WE FOUND

On reverse searching the image on Google, we came across a tweet that was retweeted by Asaduddin Owaisi and carried the viral image. The tweet was shared in August 2016.

Since Owaisi mentioned about a powerloom meeting, we ran an advanced search on Twitter and came across a series of tweets made by him in August 2016 regarding the said meeting.

One of the tweets read: “In a Stake Holders Meetings PowerLoom Industry called by @smritiirani it is a first such meeting ever called by a MIN t solve PLoom problems. (sic)”

Using relevant keyword search on Twitter, we came across a tweet shared in 2016 by Syed Sulaiman, who is associated with AIMIM. The tweet showed an image of the said meeting in which both Smriti Irani and Owaisi could be seen wearing the same clothes as in the viral image.

Left: Viral image. Right: 2016 image.

Evidently, an old image has been revived as recent in context of the recently held GHMC polls.

The Quint’s WebQoof team had earlier debunked the false claim that the BJP had formed an alliance with AIMIM for the upcoming West Bengal elections.

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