Fact Check: BMC elections - Muslims form long voting queue ? No, image is from Varanasi
An image showing Muslims standing in a queue to vote is going viral with the claim that it shows a visual from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections in 2026.
By - M Ramesh Naik
Claim:The image shows Muslims voting in the recently concluded BMC elections in Mumbai.
Fact:The claim is false. The image is from June 2024 and was taken in Varanasi during the Lok Sabha elections, not during the BMC polls in Mumbai.
Hyderabad: On January 15, polling was held across 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. As many as 3.48 crore voters were on the electoral rolls to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates.
The spotlight was the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) – India’s richest civic body, with an annual budget exceeding Rs 74,400 crore – where 1,700 candidates are contesting 227 seats after a delay of four years.
As per the latest reports on January 16 evening, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance was leading in the BMC elections—a significant political shift in BMC, which governs the administration of Mumbai.
Amid the political developments, a photograph showing a group of people from the Muslim community standing in a queue to vote has been widely shared on social media with a communal narrative.
The image is being claimed as a visual from the ongoing BMC elections in Mumbai.
An X user shared the image with the caption, “This picture was clicked around 4 PM in Mumbai, long queue to vote for Janab Uddhav-Raj... They know the power of their votes, Hindus don’t.” (Archive)
A similar post can be seen here. (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The image is not related to the BMC elections and does not show voters in Mumbai.
A reverse image search of the viral photograph led to a report published by Al Jazeera on June 10, 2024, which carried the same image. The photograph was credited to Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo. Tracing the photo to the AP website, we found the image as a part of a series of photographs listed under the ‘varanasi voting india 2024’ category by AP.
The AP caption read, “Muslims stand in queues to cast their votes in the seventh and final phase of national elections, in Varanasi, India, Saturday, June 1, 2024. Indians began voting Saturday in the last round of a six-week-long national election that is a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)”
Further verification using this lead and cross-checking the AP Photos Archive confirms that the image depicts Muslims standing in a queue to cast their votes during the final phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The image also carried the watermark that read ‘Distributed by The Associated Press’.
The image was taken on June 1, 2024, during polling in Varanasi and has no connection to the municipal elections in Mumbai.
An old image from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Varanasi is being falsely shared as a recent photograph from the BMC elections, giving it a misleading and communal spin.
