Fact Check: Fake BBC survey claiming BJP's landslide victory going viral on social media, media firm confirms inauthenticity

Lok Sabha Election 2019 Fact-checker:

Claim: A BBC survey has predicted BJP’s landslide win in the 2019 Lok Sabha election

Fact: FALSE. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has denied that any such survey has been done by it. In fact, the media agency does not undertake exit polls for Indian elections.

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According to a message being shared widely on Facebook and WhatsApp, a pre-election survey conducted by BBC has concluded that the ruling BJP is all set to better its 2014 performance and storm back to power with a full majority on its own in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, even in a worst-case scenario.

As per the message which lists out the possible outcome in all the states and UTs, the worst-case scenario for BJP is 323 seats, and the best case scenario is 380 out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats up for a contest. The message says that the survey has been conducted by the CIA and the ISI, external intelligence agencies of the USA and Pakistan, respectively.

@SMHoaxSlayer @boomlive_in @QuintFactCheck @AltNews kindly check this viral msg.... looks suspect. pic.twitter.com/egdmZKEBRp

— Ashes to ashes (@thru_the_prism) April 9, 2019

The link to the BBC homepage has been attached with the message, in turn, embedding its logo, in order to make it seem authentic.

However, fact-checking websites have reported that no such pre-election survey has been conducted by the BBC. In fact, the broadcaster does not conduct pre-election surveys at all for India.

In a statement to Alt News , a BBC spokesperson said, “This fake survey on the Lok Sabha polls has been circulating on WhatsApp and Facebook, with messages claiming it to be from BBC News. We’d like to make it absolutely clear that it is fake and does not come from the BBC. The BBC does not support pre-election surveys in India”.

Moreover, in a Facebook post, Mukesh Sharma, editor of BBC News Hindi, clarified that the BBC has conducted no such survey related to the 2019 elections.

Previously as well, prior to the Karnataka assembly election and the Rajasthan bypoll of 2018, the name and logo of BBC were misused to circulate a fake pre-poll survey showing the ruling party ahead in both states. But the news was debunked by hoax slayers.