Viral Photo Showing BSP Posters Along Lucknow Metro Line Is Fake

The photo was created using a downloadable template, which can be edited to add any images or graphics.

The viral photo is fake and no such posters have been put up by the BSP.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A photo of hoardings at a metro platform which carry Hindi text, "With BSP's rule of law, women are safe from today" is being shared on social media, to claim that the posters had been put up along the Lucknow Metro line, pre-emptively celebrating the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP's) victory in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.

However, we found that the claim is false. A member of the BSP IT Cell told The Quint that no such posters had been put up anywhere. We also found a large number of posters resembling the photo in the claim, which led us to an editable template for the same.

CLAIM

The photo of the hoarding is being shared with Hindi text, which reads –

"लखनऊ मेट्रो में आगामी बसपा सरकार के पोस्टर अभी से लगना शुरू हो गए हैं"

[Translation: The future BSP government has already starting putting up posters along the Lucknow Metro line.]

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Archives of more posts with the same claim on social media can be viewed here, here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We cropped the post to separate the photo and the text and carried out a reverse image search on the photograph.

The results showed several photos published on Adobe's creative social media platform Behance, with every one of them showing different content and graphics in it.

The first photo shows the photo in the claim, while the rest show various versions of the same image.

(Note: Swipe right to view all images.)

The photo used in the claim.

This version shows a family planning advertisement.

This version shows an advertisement for the English national football team.)

In this version, the user has created advertisement for a festival.

This version shows a text-based hoarding in Italian.

This version was created for a fictitious 'Adopt a Guy' campaign.

Looking into it further, we came across two websites which offered the blank template for downloading and purchase.

The website hosts a blank, downloadable template.

(Source: Llllline.com/Screenshot)

The Quint then reached out to a BSP IT Cell member who confirmed over text that the photograph was fake.

Clearly, the photo in the claim is a fake image that was shared across social media platforms, with the false claim that BSP pre-emptively put up posters mentioning the party's victory ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.

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