Morphed photo shows Rahul Gandhi with messy hair, overgrown beard

Hyderabad: A photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, allegedly from his Bharat Jodo Yatra, shows him with messy hair and beard.

A journalist, Surajit Dasgupta, shared the photo and said after Rahul Gandhi failed as a youth icon, he is now being sold as an old man.

Taking a dig at the Congress party, Dasgupta wrote, "They tried to sell him as a youth icon. Didn't work. They tried to sell his pet, Pidi, to project a soft side…They tried rain. Got washed away. They are now trying old age. No 'Marx' for guessing this will fail too."

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Fact Check

NewsMeter searched for the photo on the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi's Twitter and Instagram pages but did not find the viral photo. We noticed that in many images, Rahul Gandhi seems not to have groomed himself since the start of the Bharat Jodo Yatra on 7 September. However, none of his photos or videos shows his beard and hair having grown as seen in the viral photo.

To find the origin of the viral photo, we performed a reverse image search and found the same photo used in a Deccan Herald article published on 19 October. In this photo, the background and people surrounding him are the same but his hair and beard are not as messy or overgrown as seen in the viral photo.

Deccan Herald has credited the photo to the Press Trust of India (PTI). We then found the photo in the archive of the PTI, but it doesn't show Rahul Gandhi with messy hair and overgrown beard as seen in the viral photo. According to the PTI, the photo was taken on 18 October in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Further, we found the same photo carried by the United News of India and newKerala.com but none of them shows the Congress leader with messy hair and beard.

It is evident that the viral photo is morphed. Hence, the claim is misleading.