Fact Check: Did TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu go to Singapore instead of USA after 2024 AP polls?
The voting for the State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh ended on May 13. Many politicians across parties have reportedly left India to take a break from the high-decibel election campaign while they wait for the results on June 4.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 21 May 2024 3:56 PM GMT
Claim: The image shows former TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu in Singapore after the 2024 Andhra Pradesh polling day on May 13.
Fact: The claim is false. Naidu’s image was digitally added to an old photo of a Singapore road.
Hyderabad: The voting for the State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh ended on May 13. Many politicians across parties have reportedly left India to take a break from the high-decibel election campaign while they wait for the results on June 4.
TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is also one of the politicians who is said to have left for the United States of America with his wife Bhuvaneshwari.
However, a claim has been circulating on social media that Naidu went to Singapore instead of the USA with an image as evidence. The image reportedly shows Naidu walking on Orchard Road in Singapore.
“What are you doing in Singapore when you say you are going to America???” said an X user who shared the image. (Archive)
(Source/X:@Sam_speaks23)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false as the viral image of Naidu at Orchard Road is edited.
Doing a reverse image search of the viral image led us to a story published by a website CNA on September 27, 2023. The image featured in the article was the same as the viral image except Naidu was not in it.
The image was captioned, ‘File photo of people crossing the road along the Orchard Road shopping belt in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)’ This shows that the photo has been on the internet at least since September 2023.
Comparing both images side by side shows that both are identical; the woman in a white dress wearing a mask in the center of the frame and the man in the black t-shirt on the left side are present in both images in the same pose.
We then searched for news articles to find the present location of Naidu.
Telugu news portal The Federal on May 19 reported that Chandrababu has gone abroad following chief minister YS Jagan who left for foreign tours immediately after the polling in Andhra Pradesh.
We found an ABN Andhra Jyothy article published on May 19. Quoting party sources, the article said that Naidu has gone to America for a medical examination. It said that he had undergone medical tests in America earlier and has gone once again. He will return in five or six days, the article said.
However, we found media reports of party members stating that Naidu has not gone to the USA. While NewsMeter couldn’t independently verify Naidu’s travel plans after AP polling day on May 13, we can conclude that the viral image claiming to show Naidu on a Singapore road is edited.
