No, Virat Kohli Did Not Show Support for Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra

The original photo, taken by photographer Rohan Shrestha, shows Virat Kohli in a plain white T-shirt.

Kohli's original photo, in a plain T-shirt, was shared in 2016.

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

A photograph of cricketer Virat Kohli, wearing a white T-shirt with the logo of the Indian National Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra is being shared on social media. Users are sharing this photo to claim that Kohli expressed his support for the Yatra.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

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

But the photo is morphed. The original image, showing a black-and-white photo of Kohli wearing a plain white T-shirt, is over six years old and has been edited to add 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Using relevant keywords, we looked for the cricketer's black-and-white photos. The search led us to an article by PinkVilla from September 2016, mentioning Virat Kohli's headshot.

It mentioned that photographer Rohan Shrestha had taken Kohli's photo and shared it on his Instagram account.

Taking a cue from this, we looked for the photo on Shrestha's verified Instagram account, and found that he had shared a picture similar to the one in the claim on 23 September 2016, and tagged Kohli in the photo.

However, this photo showed a plain white T-shirt, without any symbols or logos.

His photo was edited to add the Bharat Jodo Yatra's symbol.

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

We then went through Kohli's social media accounts to see whether he had expressed support for Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on 7 September earlier this year but didn't come across any posts doing so.

No credible news reports mentioned the cricketer supporting the Yatra either.

Evidently, a six-year-old photo of cricketer Virat Kohli has been edited and shared to claim that he expressed his support for the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.

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