Fake News18 graphic shared to claim Nana Patole set to resign from Congress

What is the claim? 

A News18 Lokmat graphic is going viral online, claiming that Maharashtra Congress State President Nana Patole is reportedly 'upset' with the Congress party and is planning to resign. The claim has surfaced ahead of the Assembly elections in the western Indian state of Maharashtra on November 20. 

The viral graphic appears to have been designed as a breaking news alert by News18 Lokmat, a Marathi news channel. It features text in Marathi on a red background, which translates to, "Upset Nana Patole is preparing to leave the Congress."

The graphic has been widely shared on X (formerly Twitter), and the archived versions of these posts can be viewed here and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Screenshot)

However, we found that Lokmat did not publish such news about Patole. The channel also clarified that the viral graphic was fake.

What we found 

We conducted a Google search using Lokmat's tagline for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, "Maharashtracha Mahasangram" (Maharashtra's great battle), to find the text displayed in the viral graphic. We also analyzed Lokmat's Maharashtra election-focused news bulletins and found no reports of the claims from the viral graphic.

In fact, in Lokmat news bulletins from different dates, Patole was shown attending press conferences (archive here) with ally Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders. He was seen giving updates about Congress candidates and commenting on the party's election strategies.

We compared the viral graphic with other "Maharashtracha Mahasangram" episodes and noted that none of them featured any such ticker.

Additionally, we found no credible news channel coverage or news reports about Patole's resignation from Congress. Recent reports about Patole cover his ongoing role as Congress state president and include statements about allies and opposition parties.

News18 Lokmat also clarified on X (archived here), labeling the viral graphic as fake and denying any such report.

Screenshot of News18 Lokmat's clarification on X. (Source: News18Lokmat/X)

Recently, a fake Lokmat graphic misrepresented the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) party leader and Member of Rajya Sabha Sanjay Raut's statement. A fabricated statement from Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray was also circulated as an ABP Majha news graphic, an ABP group Marathi channel, which was fact-checked by Logically Facts.

The verdict 

The viral Lokmat graphic is fake and the channel has denied publishing any news on Congress State President Nana Patole's resignation. 

(Translated by Vanita Ganesh)