Media reports falsely claim Atiq Ahmed voted in favor and 'saved' the UPA government in 2008 during a no-confidence motion

Context

On April 15, three youths pretending to be journalists shot dead Atiq Ahmed, a gangster-politician, and his brother Khalid Azim (aka Ashraf) in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. The incident occurred at night when the two were being escorted to a hospital for a mandatory medical examination under heavy police cover. After the incident, news agency Press Trust of India(PTI) published a report on April 16, claiming that Ahmed and six other politicians in prison were 'furloughed' from different jails to "save" the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) union government in 2008. Several news outlets quoted the PTI report, which quoted a book to back the claim, on social media claiming that Ahmed's vote had 'saved' the UPA government. One such post on Koo read, "As per a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI), Atique Ahmed and 6 other criminal politicians were 'furloughed' (temporarily released) from different jails within 48 hours so that they could vote in favor of the UPA in 2008." Several right-wing outlets, including OpIndia, and mainstream news organizations like Economic Times, Dainik Jagran, and ABP News, published the PTI report reiterating the same claim. 

In Fact

Several news reports from 2008 and government records prove that the claim is false and state that Ahmed and six other members of Parliament (MPs) voted against the UPA government during the 2008 confidence vote. 

In July 2008, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front withdrew its support from the Congress-led UPA coalition over a nuclear deal with the U.S. The UPA was 44 seats behind the 272 majority mark in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha. The UPA government won the vote of confidence with 275 votes. According to an official document shared on the Lok Sabha Digital Library, Ahmed had voted against the motion. He is listed among the top 10 in the "Noes" category.

According to a Hindustan Times report dated July 25, 2008, Samajwadi Party(SP) had expelled six of its MPs, including Atiq Ahmed, from the party for disobeying the party's directive to vote in favor of the UPA government's vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha. Jai Prakash (Mohanlalganj), SP Singh Baghel (Jalesar), Raj Narain Budholia (Hamirpur), Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur), Atiq Ahmed (Phulpur), and Munnawar Hussain (Muzaffarnagar) were the MPs who had been expelled from the party. The same developments were reported by The Indian Express and India Today in July 2008 as well.

The PTI report from April 16 quoted a book titled "Baahubalis of Indian Politics: From Bullet to Ballot" to claim that Atiq Ahmed and six other criminals were granted furlough to save UPA in 2008. However, the news agency took down the original story and published a fresh report on April 17, which quoted Lok Sabha records to state that Ahmed had defied the SP's whip and voted against the confidence motion. The report also noted that a previous PTI story had laid forth the erroneous claim quoting the book, which was consequently found false when checked against Parliament records. The English website of Danik Jagran also removed their story and issued a correction, however, many news outlets still carry news stories with the wrong claim.

The Verdict  

The claim that Atiq Ahmed's vote "saved" UPA in 2008 is false because he voted against the motion. He was subsequently expelled from the party for violating the whip. News reports from 2008 and government documents confirm that the claim is incorrect.