By Abhishek Kumar

An image of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is viral on social media, in which he can be seen with a girl. BJP leaders and supporters have claimed that the girl seen with Rahul Gandhi is Amulya Leona, known to have raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans during the anti-CAA protest in Bangalore in 2020. AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi was also a part of that protest rally. Amulya was later arrested.

BJP’s IT cell co-convenor in Uttar Pradesh Shashi Kumar shared the viral picture side by side with Amulya’s old video and tweeted, “Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is turning out to be an association of all anti-nationals. Amulya Leona Noronha who had raised Pakistan Zindabad slogans during the anti-CAA protests, walks with Rahul Gandhi and he hugs her”. The tweet was later deleted. (Archive link)

BJP party worker Preeti Gandhi tweeted on similar lines, claiming the image reflects it isn’t a march to unite India, but rather to disintegrate India. She later deleted the tweet.

BJP’s head of  Delhi IT cell  Puneet Agarwal tweeted the picture of Rahul Gandhi with the girl, and reiterated the claims made by other members of the party.

BJP party worker Ashutosh Dubey followed suit. (Archive link)

The same claim was also made by right-wing website KreatelyMedia, BJP supporter Kunwar Ajay Pratap Singh, right-wing troll Amit and the user Right Wing Dialogues.

Fact-check

A hashtag search of Bharat Jodo Yatra showed the same picture of Rahul Gandhi tweeted by a user on September 21, 2022.  The user, in a congratulatory message, mentioned the name of the girl seen with Rahul Gandhi as Miva Andrelio.

Based on the information from the user, we searched Instagram and found that the name of the girl seen in the viral picture was indeed Miva Jolly. Miva had uploaded a picture with Rahul Gandhi on Instagram on September 21. We found several pictures related to the Bharat Jodo Yatra on her account. Miva Jolly is associated with the Kerala Students Union (KSU), the student wing of the Congress party.

Read the full story here:- https://www.altnews.in/fact-check-rahul-gandhi-bharat-jodo-yatra-amulya-leona-f