Credit: The Quint; modified by Deccan Herald
A photo of a man standing next to a decorated auto-rickshaw is being shared on social media, where users have claimed that it shows a photo of a young Eknath Shinde, the former chief minister of Maharashtra.
Credit: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot
Is it true?: No, it shows one Baba Kamble, who was the president of the Maharashtra Rickshaw Panchayat.
How did we find out the truth?: We conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens, which led us to the same picture uploaded by a Facebook page called 'Maharashtra Rickshaw Panchayat Pune'.
Its caption mentioned that it shows Maharashtra Rickshaw Panchayat's "founding president and workers' leader Baba Kamble's photo."
It added that it was taken in 1997 at Pimpri Ratrani Rickshaw stand.
(Archives of other posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)
The auto's registration number 'MH 14' also shows that the vehicle was registered in Pune's Pimpri Chinchwad area.
Scrolling through the page, we came across another post which had issued a clarification regarding the viral claim in 2022.
It said that Kamble had started driving auto-rickshaws in 1995 after completing his religious education and started a 24 hour rickshaw stand called 'Ratrani' in Pimpri, Pune.
Another post on the page shared images of the claim along with an audio recording, purportedly that of a call between Kamble and National Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar.
On this call, Kamble spoke to the leader and told him that after finishing his religious education from Alandi, he started driving an auto-rickshaw in Pimpri.
He gave more context to the photo, clarifying that it was one of him during the month of shravan, when all drivers decorated and paid respect to their vehicles.
Conclusion: An image of an auto-rickshaw driver is being shared with the false claim that it shows an old photo of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
This story was originally published by The Quint, and republished by Deccan Herald as part of the Shakti Collective.