Twitterati reacts as Lalu Prasad Yadav posts image of jam-packed Gandhi Maidan for his Patna rally

In a bid to display strength to the BJP-JD(U) combined, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday perhaps went overboard and tweeted an allegedly ‘morphed’ aerial picture of his “BJP bhagao, desh bachao" rally showing a jam-packed Gandhi Maidan of Patna.

No "Face" will stand in front of Lalu's "Base". Come & Count as much as u can in Gandhi Maidan, Patna #DeshBachao pic.twitter.com/sXoAcpwNKw

— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) August 27, 2017

The rally was attended by political heavyweights like West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, JD(U) rebel Sharad Yadav, and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. Few minutes after the image was tweeted from Lalu’s Twitter handle, news agency ANI tweeted few pictures of the same ground showing far fewer people in the rally. The discrepancies in the images were just not limited to the number of people. In the photo tweeted by ANI, there was a row of trees in the middle of the ground which went missing in the image that Lalu had tweeted.

RJD's Patna rally: Picture taken from same point where Lalu Prasad Yadav's purported picture was taken; crowd sizes are different. pic.twitter.com/3QuEsBlQua

— ANI (@ANI) August 27, 2017

In his tweet, Lalu’s son Tejashwi claimed that the rally was attended by 30 lakh people.

If someone thinks BJP can't be defeated than come to Gandhi Maidan, 30 lacs people are waiting. #DeshBachao pic.twitter.com/qSzzuoos3K

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 27, 2017

Omar Abdullah also tweeted his reaction to the image.

Good to see ANI is taking on the responsibility of debunking false/doubtful claims. Look forward to this being done across party lines 👍🏼 https://t.co/SAckJM3o5P

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) August 27, 2017

Predictably, the inconsistency was spotted by the twitterati and a barrage of reactions swirled around it in no time. Mocking the image, BJP leader from Bihar Giriraj Singh said the rally could be seen even from space.

Lalu ji's rally can be seen from space . pic.twitter.com/wgI1ZkVEFu

— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) August 27, 2017

A twitter user found possible morphings in the image.

Counted as much as I could @laluprasadrjd pic.twitter.com/UOGYIjP8xG

— pAgaL_P₹oj3ct (@HoeZaay) August 27, 2017

At Gandhi Maidan, Lalu said that the “BJP bhagao desh bachao” rally would herald the decline of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress general secretary CP Joshi were also present at the rally. Akhilesh Yadav, Hemant Soren, Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap came together on the dais and waived at the crowd signalling unity among the young leaders of major Opposition parties. With inputs from PTI