Edited Wire Screenshot Falsely Claims Modi Told ECI To Add Fake Voters for Bihar

The Wire has not published any article of this nature, and no credible sources have shared the same information.

An altered news clipping imitating The Wire is being shared to falsely claim that PM Modi told the ECI to add fake voters for the Bihar elections.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A screenshot of what appears to be an article published by The Wire is being widely shared on social media ahead of polling for the assembly elections in Bihar, scheduled for 6 and 10 November.

What does it say?: The image carries a quote, purportedly by the Election Commissioner of India, where he says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him and the Chief Election Commissioner to "add a million fake voters across various constituencies in Bihar."

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the screenshot is fake.

How do we know?: The first discrepancy we noted in the screenshot was the Election Commissioner's name, which is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, not Sukhbir Singh Sidhu.

The Election Commissioner's name is Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

(Source: ECI/Screenshot)

We also noticed that the article in the screenshot did not match the font or the layout of an article published on The Wire's website.

The font and layout differ.

(Source: Facebook/The Wire/Altered by The Quint)

• We then checked archived versions of the The Wire's website to check if the article had been published and then deleted, but that was not the case.

• A simple keyword search also showed us that there were no credible reports published by any organisation to corroborate the claim about PM Modi making ECI add voters.

• The Quint has contact The Wire for their inputs regarding the claim.

Conclusion: A morphed screenshot is being shared to falsely claim that PM Modi told the ECI to add fake voters for Bihar's elections.

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