Fake ABP, Aaj Tak opinion polls viral in run-up to Delhi elections; channels issue statement – Alt News

In the run-up to the Delhi assembly polls to be held on February 5, several opinion polls are viral on social media. Some opinion polls project a landslide win for the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party while some project a win for the BJP.

Is AAP Projected to Win with 58-60 seats as Claimed by its Leader?

On February 4, the district president of AAP women wing in Delhi Sakshi Gupta tweeted an opinion poll purportedly released by news outlet ABP, which projected a whopping 58-60 seats for AAP, 10-12 seats for the BJP and zero seats for Congress. “Kejriwal is making a comeback”, remarked Gupta while sharing a video of the purported opinion polls. The video momentarily shows ABP journalist Pooja Sachdeva before tickers detailing the opinion poll show up on screen. (Archive)

Several other users, noticeably signed with the Aam Aadmi Party, tweeted the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

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Fact Check

It is pertinent to note that opinion polls are usually conducted after the voting ends. Consequently, we did not find any opinion poll officially released by ABP News. Furthermore, ABP News issued a statement wherein they denied having published any such opinion poll.

#FakeNewsAlert | सोशल मीडिया पर abp न्यूज़ के नाम से एक फर्जी वीडियो वायरल किया जा रहा है. इस तरह का कोई भी ओपिनियन पोल abp न्यूज़ द्वारा नहीं चलाया गया है.

आपसे अनुरोध है कि फर्जी खबरों से बचें और सही खबरों के लिए हमारे सोशल मीडिया हैंडल पर ही भरोसा करें.

IG -… pic.twitter.com/yxPxJX8y2s

— ABP News (@ABPNews) February 4, 2025

Upon a closer look at the video, we also noticed some discrepancies in the viral video. For instance, the audio does not match what Sachdeva says in the beginning. A slowed-down version of this part is attached below.

Taking cue from this, we took a key frame from the beginning of the viral video where Sachdeva is visible and ran it through Google reverse image search. We were able to trace it back to an ABP news clip. The original clip shows Pooja Sachdeva reporting on Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in Delhi’s Patparganj and Okhla on January 28. A side-by-side comparison of the viral clip and the original clip is attached below. If one compares Sachdeva’s hand gestures, one can understand that the clips are same, only the audio replaced.

Similar Opinion Poll also Tweeted by AAP Leader, this time Attributed to Aaj Tak

Sakshi Gupta had put out another opinion poll projecting AAP win, this time attributing it to Aaj Tak. The tweet, now deleted, consisted of a video which predicted AAP would win 56-58 seats while BJP would win 12-14 seats and Congress would win zero seats. Here is an archive of her tweet.

This has also been tweeted by several users. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)

*दिल्ली चुनाव से ठीक पहले आजतक का सर्वे* 🚨

👉केजरीवाल का फिर से मुख्यमंत्री बनना तय 🔥

आम आदमी पार्टी को *56-58 सीटों पर बढ़त*‼️
कांग्रेस एक बार फिर 0⃣

*ये तो प्रचंड जीत है, वाक़ई में मान गये केजरीवाल को, हमें भी विधायक उसी का बनाना है जिस पार्टी का मुख्यमंत्री बन रहा हो* 🧹 pic.twitter.com/yZEqXamv5u

— Tarun Kumar (@taarun_seth) February 4, 2025

A Facebook page named Phir Layenge Kejriwal-फिर लाएंगे केजरीवाल also posted the viral video and garnered 2.6k likes and over 450 shares.

Fact Check

Aaj Tak released a fact-check report of the viral video stating that no such opinion poll had been conducted by them. The report additionally states that the voice of Aaj Tak anchor Saeed Ansari had been modified using AI to make the commentary that can be heard in the background. Ansari also denied announcing any such opinion poll. Moreover, the report noted that certain text seen in the video has overlapping text, which is unusual for news tickers.

Another feature that indicates that the audio may have been AI-generated is that a lot of words have been pronounced in an anglicized manner. For instance, the word Delhi has been pronounced with a ड-sound instead of a द-sound.

Opinion Poll viral, this time Projecting Landslide Win for the BJP

A video of a purported opinion poll by ABP News is also viral on social media. According to it, the BJP is projected to win 49 seats while the AAP and Congress parties are projected to win 16 and five seats respectively. User @ManojSr60583090 tweeted the video and garnered 20.5k views and 544 retweets at time of the writing of this article. (Archive)

*दिल्ली चुनाव के*

*ओपिनियन पोल में AAP को 16*

*काँग्रेस को 5 सीटें*

*और*

*BJP को 49 सीटों को अनुमान*

*सुन लो*

*मोदी है तो ही सब मुमकिन है* pic.twitter.com/bdYCqmj8sT

— Manoj Srivastava (@ManojSr60583090) December 17, 2024

Right-wing influencer @JaipurDialogues also tweeted the viral video and garnered close to 27k views. (Archive)

Another Opinion Poll is also viral which projects the BJP winning 47 seats, 17 seats for AAP and six seats for the Congress. (Archive)

वो सब छोड़ ये बता कैसी रही अब भी जनता को पागल बनाना छोड़ दो निट्ठलो
ताजा आंकड़ों के आधार पर @BJP4Delhi 41-46, Aapदा 17-22, Congress 1-2 लेकर आ सकती हैं। AAPदा के दिग्गजों की हार का मार्जिन ऐसे रहेगा।@ArvindKejriwal 8000-12000@msisodia 10000 से 13000@AtishiAAP 8000 से 11000 https://t.co/kW7S5cG7kV pic.twitter.com/Rm85gYLXht

— Mahesh Yadav (@MAHESHYGGN) January 30, 2025

Fact Check

As mentioned earlier, ABP News has not conducted an opinion poll for the Delhi elections yet. Taking to Twitter, the outlet categorically denied publishing such opinion polls They issued two consequent statements for the two viral opinion polls.

“We will take legal action against such people”, read one of their statements. Read here and here.

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The trend of politicians and influencers sharing misleading opinion polls on social media often falsely attributing them to reputable media outlets is, however, not a new one. The 2025 Delhi assembly polls have proven to be no exception.

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