Did BJP's Annamalai receive 'a single vote' at a Tamil Nadu polling booth? Image is edited

What’s the claim?

During the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results on June 4, an image surfaced on social media purportedly showing a result sheet from the Coimbatore constituency in Tamil Nadu. The image alleged that Tamil Nadu BJP Chief K Annamalai received just one vote at a voting booth. Annamalai was a contestant in the elections from the Coimbatore constituency.

Salem Dharanidharan, a spokesperson for the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), shared the image on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “Aadu Annamalai gets just one vote in a booth. One plate mutton chukka parcel (sic).”

The post garnered over 38,000 views at the time of writing. Another post featuring the same image received over 500,000 views. This image circulated widely on social media, ridiculing Annamalai's performance during the elections. Archived versions of such posts can be accessed here and here.

Moreover, Malayalam news outlets Asianet News and Kerala Kaumudi also published the image, both asserting that Annamalai received “only one vote” at a polling booth in Coimbatore.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the document circulating on social media has been edited. The original image reveals that Annamalai received 101 votes at the particular polling booth.

What we found

Logically Facts discovered a post on X (archived here) by Sun News, a Tamil news channel, which provided live vote count updates on results day. The post featured the original image document, revealing that BJP candidate Annamalai received 101 votes at the polling booth numbered ‘BCUAF 07464 - 312.’

Additionally, the document indicated that the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) candidate, Singai G Ramachandran, secured 24 votes, and the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) candidate, Ganapathy P. Rajkumar, received 164 votes at the same booth in the first round.

Comparison of the viral image and the image shared by Sun News. (Source: X/@sunnewstamil)

Logically Facts also contacted a local journalist from Coimbatore, who shared the original image, confirming that Annamalai received 101 votes at the ‘BCUAF 07464 - 312’ polling booth, rather than just one vote.

Furthermore, the remaining document revealed that Annamalai did not receive votes in single digits at any booth in the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency. The lowest number of votes he obtained was 62, at the ‘BCUEK 74482 - 564’ polling booth, as per the document of the results shared by Sun News on X.

Screenshot of the X post by Sun News.(Source: X/@sunnewstamil)

We also cross-referenced the official website of the Election Commission of India, where constituency-wise results were published. Annamalai secured a total of 4,50,132 votes but lost the election to DMK’s P Ganapathy Rajkumar, who garnered a total of 5,68,200 votes and won by a margin of 1,18,068 votes.

The verdict

The image claiming that Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai received only one vote at a particular polling booth in Coimbatore has been edited. Annamalai actually secured 101 votes at that specific polling station. Consequently, we have marked this claim as false.