Post Shows Husband’s Photo on Panchayat Flyer Instead of Wife? It's from a Film!

There is no Chakkarakkudam panchayat listed on the state's gram panchayat website.

Fact-Check: This visual is from a Malayalam film and not a real incident.

(Source: The Quint) 

A post claiming that an election campaign poster in Kerala for a Muslim woman candidate displayed her husband’s photo instead of her own is being shared on social media.

• The poster, written in Malayalam, allegedly reads “Vote for Sulaiman’s spouse Fathima” and mentions “Chakkarakkudam Gram Panchayat, Ward 11,” along with the emblem of a political group called PPDP.

The claim: Those sharing the post questioned the state of “literacy” in Kerala, a state known for having one of the highest literacy rates in the country.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post gathered 163.5K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false. The viral poster features a scene from a Malayalam film called Vellari Pattanam.

What we found: At first, we looked for the Chakkarakkudam gram panchayat as listed in the viral poster.

• We went on to the website of the Local Self Development Department of Kerala and looked for the said panchayat, however did not find its name in the list.

Here are the listed gram panchayats beginning with the letter 'C' in Kerala. 

Here are the listed gram panchayats beginning with the letter 'C' in Kerala. 

Here are the listed gram panchayats beginning with the letter 'C' in Kerala. 

Here are the listed gram panchayats beginning with the letter 'C' in Kerala. 

Here are the listed gram panchayats beginning with the letter 'C' in Kerala. 

• Additionally, we did not find any party by the name 'PPDP,' listed in Kerala.

• A party by the name Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party (PDP) is a listed party. Its short form is PDP.

• We looked at the comments under the viral post and came across some comments alleging that the poster was from a film scene.

Here are some comments under the viral post. 

Here are some comments under the viral post. 

Here are some comments under the viral post. 

• One of the comments noted that the visual was from a film named Vellari Pattanam.

An archive of the comment can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

• Team WebQoof ran a relevant keyword search and found the full movie on YouTube. At the 1:19:34 timestamp, the viral visual is visible on the screen.

Here is the screenshot from the film Vellari Pattanam.

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot) 

• Vellari Pattanam is political satire film which was released in 2023. The film stars Soubin Shahir, Salim Kumar, Manju Warrier, and Shabareesh Varma.

Conclusion: The viral post is false as the visual is from a film called Vellari Pattanam.

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