A viral screenshot of an exit poll purportedly conducted by Zee News and Designboxed is being widely shared on social media, to claim that the Samajwadi Party (SP) will secure a majority of the vote share and come to power in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Counting of votes for the 2022 Assembly elections across five states, including Uttar Pradesh, is scheduled for 10 March.
We found that the screenshot of Zee News' exit poll was morphed. None of the channel's exit poll broadcasts match the screenshot in the claim, neither in layout nor in figures.
However, we saw that the viral screenshot resembles the graphic format followed by channel in its coverage of opinion polls.
CLAIM
The screenshot is being shared to claim that the SP and its allies will form a government in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, with some versions of the claim expressing pride in SP leader Akhilesh Yadav.
An archived version of this tweet can be accessed here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We went through Zee News' verified YouTube channel to go through their coverage of exit polls for Uttar Pradesh.
Here, we came across two videos that had been streamed live on 7 March, with in-depth coverage of exit polls. In both these videos, the format and the predicted vote share by party did not match the screenshot in the claim.
(Note: Swipe right to view both visuals)
Neither of the videos had the same layout or figures as claimed.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)
Next, we conducted a reverse image search on the screenshot, which led us to an opinion polls video by Zee News' YouTube channel, which was uploaded on 26 January.
Nearly eight minutes into the video, a graphic similar to the one in the claim was seen.
Both screen grabs have a similar layout.
(Source: YouTube/Facebook/Alteredby The Quint)
In this video we saw that the same graphic layout was used to show opinion poll predictions for central Uttar Pradesh and not exit polls, as claimed.
The same layout was seen in other Zee News opinion polls predictions for other states and regions of Uttar Pradesh as well.
As per Zee News' Opinion Poll, Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to get the majority seats and form the government in the state.
Clearly, a morphed screenshot of a Zee News opinion poll was shared to claim that the SP would come to power in Uttar Pradesh in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
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