Fact Check: Viral video showing crumbled paper slips makes a false claim as VVPAT slips of YSRCP
The ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) led by Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy has lost power in Andhra Pradesh to the Telugu Desam Party- BJP and Janasena alliance. The TDP won a whopping 135 seats, while its alliance partners, Jana Sena won all the 21 seats it contested and BJP won 8 seats, limiting YSRC to a meagre 11 seats.
YSRC party
The ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) led by Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy has lost power in Andhra Pradesh to the Telugu Desam Party- BJP and Janasena alliance. The TDP won a whopping 135 seats, while its alliance partners, Jana Sena won all the 21 seats it contested and BJP won 8 seats, limiting YSRC to a meagre 11 seats.
After TDPs impressive performance in the polls, the party chief Chandrababu Naidu is set to govern Andhra Pradesh again. He will become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth time and also the longest-serving CM of the state.
He reaffirmed his decision to stay with the National Democratic Alliance and support BJP in forming the government at the Centre. The outgoing CM Jaganmohan Reddy lamented that he does not know the reason why despite taking welfare to maximum households, farmers, and others, he and his party members faced such a humiliating defeat in the polls.
Meanwhile, a video showing a lot of slips looking like VVPAT slips with the fan logo (of the YSRC) thrown off in the dirt is going viral on social media on the counting day i.e., June 4, 2024. In the video, we can hear a person saying ‘The votes we cast to Jagan are thrown in the dirt near the bushes’.
Fact check:
The claim is False. The slips seen in the video are not VVPAT slips taken from the polling booths.
When we observed the video carefully, we can see words in Telugu on the slips ‘ఫ్యాన్ గుర్తు కే మన ఓటు’. When translated, it states ‘Our Vote is for Fan’.
Here is the screenshot from the video:
Upon further search, we found a tweet stating that the slips distributed door to door during the election campaign, with the text ‘Our vote is for Fan’ are being shown as the VVPAT slips. The caption in Telugu goes as “మాకు ఓటు వేయండి అంటూ, ఎన్నికల ముందు ఇంటిటికీ స్లిప్స్ ఇచ్చేప్పుడు, ఇచ్చే ఫ్యాన్ గుర్తుకు "మన ఓటు" అనే వాటిని పట్టుకుని, వీవీప్యాట్ స్లిప్స్ అంటూ తప్పుడు ప్రచారం చేస్తున్నారు.”
Hence, the video showing the campaigning slips with ‘Vote for Fan’ written on them dumped in the bushes are in circulation with a false claim that VVPAT slips were thrown away during the counting of the votes. The claim is False.