This is not a genuine list of state assembly election candidates for an Indian political party

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 22, 2020 at 06:05
2 min read
By AFP India

An image has been shared thousands of times in multiple Facebook and Twitter posts in January 2020 alongside a claim that it shows a list of 27 candidates from India’s Aam Aadmi Party for the upcoming state assembly elections. The claim is false; the list circulated on social media prior to Aam Aadmi Party’s official list of candidates were announced on January 14, 2020; a party spokesperson said the list in the misleading posts was "false".

This image was published on Facebook on January 14, 2020.

It has been shared more than 140 times.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The post's Hindi-language caption translates to English as: “Wake up Hindu voters of Delhi, this is not a list of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, but the first lists of candidates issued by the Aam Admi Party of Delhi state assembly elections."

"All India Muslim Personal Law Board", a Muslim civic body, is a reference to how a significant number of names in the misleading post have Muslim origins; including “Imran Tahir”, “Mohammad Ali Khan” and “Abbas Zafar”. The names were included in this list of popular Muslim names for baby boys compiled by US-based non-profit organisation Islamic Relief USA.

The Aam Aadmi Party is the current ruling party in Delhi state, which is set to hold assembly elections on February 8, 2020.

The image was also shared on Facebook here, here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here and here alongside a similar claim.

The claim is false; the image circulated in social media posts since at least January 13, 2020, one day before the Aam Aadmi Party issued this statement on Twitter, announcing their 70 candidates.

Important Announcement :

Aam Aadmi Party declares all 70 candidates for the upcoming Delhi election.

We congratulate all the candidates and wish them all the best to establish high levels of trust and integrity within their constituency.#AAPKeCandidates pic.twitter.com/mbby8Z2GCR
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 14, 2020

During a phone conversation with AFP on January 16, 2020, Ankit Lal, a spokesman for the Aam Aadmi Party denied issuing a candidate list before January 14, and described the image in the misleading Facebook post as “false”.

“There are two or three different lists being shared with different claims, but they are not true. Such false lists have been floating on social media for days. We issued our complete list of all the 70 candidates on January 14, 2010,” he said.

Ankit also sent a three-page PDF copy of the official list to AFP through WhatsApp.

Below is a screenshot of the official list:

Original list of AAP candidates

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