Old Photo From West Bengal Shared as Aam Aadmi Party’s Roadshow in Gujarat

The photo shows massive crowds attending the commemoration of Martyr's Day in West Bengal's Kolkata in 2017.

The photo dates back to 2017 and shows an annual event in Kolkata.

(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

A photo showing a large crowd packing the streets is being shared on social media.

What is the claim?: The photograph is being shared to claim that it shows massive crowds in Gujarat, at a roadshow by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Raghav Chadha and Gopal Italia in Surat.

An archiveof this post can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims on social media can be seen here and here.)

What is the truth?: The photograph shows people attending a 'Shahid Dibas' or Martyr's Day rally on 21 July 2017 in Kolkata, West Bengal.

How did we find out?: Using Google Lens, we ran a reverse image search on the viral photograph.

• This led us to a post dated 21 July 2017, shared by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee's verified Facebook page.

Banerjee shared many photosof the event.

(Source:Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

• Banerjee's post carried multiple photos – including the one in the claim – and mentioned that it showed the 24th year of commemorating "Sahid Dibas."

• The date - 21 July - marks Shahid Dibas, or Martyrs' Day in West Bengal, commemorating the day 13 political workers killed by police firing in 1993.

• On comparing one of these photos to the viral image, we saw that both were the same.

• The fencing at the bottom of the photos, and a yellow board above blue tarpaulin are seen in both pictures.

A small structure and a line of trees are visible in the upper half of both photos.

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

Taking a cue from this, we looked for more photos of the event.

• On Getty Images, a stock photos website, we came across a zoomed out version of the same photograph, from July 2017.

Getty also carried photos of the event in 2017.

(Source: Getty Images/Screenshot)

Conclusion: A 2017 photograph of people in West Bengal's Kolkata commemorating Martyr's Day, at an event organised by the Trinamool Congress is being shared as that of an Aam Aadmi Party roadshow in Gujarat.

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