Edited image of Priyanka Gandhi wearing a cross goes viral linking to Wayand By-election

The image of Priyanka Gandhi wearing a cross has been digitally altered.

Voting is going on for Wayanad by-election on today13 November 2024. In Wayanad, the by-election marks Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s electoral debut. The Congress, having campaigned intensively in Wayanad, has expressed strong confidence in Vadra’s chances of winning.

Amidst this, a collage with a couple of images of Priyanka Gandhi is being widely shared on social media. It is being claimed that one image in the collage shows Priyanka wearing a Rudraksha during her visit to Kashi and the other image is of Priyanka wearing a cross on her neck during her Kerala campaign for Wayanad by-election.

Facebook Post| Archive link

Fact Check-

We started our investigation with a reverse image search on Google and the results led us to the original image published on a report published by NDTV on 18 February 2017. It featured a similar image of the Congress leader with the caption, “UP elections 2017: Priyanka Gandhi made her first public appearance in Raebareli on Friday.” The image used in the NDTV story are similar except for the locket, in this, Priyanka Gandhi is wearing a white-colored leaf shaped locket. 

Archive link

We found several other reports of the same event in February 2017 with the similar image. where she can be seen wearing the necklace with a leaf shaped locket, further confirming that the viral image has been edited. 

Archive link

The image of Priyanka Gandhi wearing a cross, is edited. You can see a comparison of both images below

Moving forward, we found the original image was there on Getty Images, also. The description states, “Indian Congress Party leader Priyanka Gandhi arrives at a rally held to support party candidates during the ongoing Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections at Rae Bareli on February 17, 2017.”

A reverse-image search showed that the image of Priyanka Gandhi wearing a rudraksha necklace was taken during her March 2019 visit to Varanasi. ABP News published a report on March 20 that shows her wearing the same saree and rudraksha.

Thus, it is evident that an old image from UP has been digitally edited and has been shared to show Priyanka Gandhi wearing a cross during her campaign for Wayanad bypoll.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found that the viral image of Priyanka Gandhi wearing a cross is digitally Altered. It has been shared to show Priyanka Gandhi wearing a cross during her campaign for Wayanad bypoll.