Fact Check: ECI’s list showing Ramkamal Das as the father of 43 sons in UP is correct, Das is the guru of his disciples
As the opposition has been questioning the Election Commission on the issue of manipulations, fake voter cards, voters
Ram Kamal Das
As the opposition has been questioning the Election Commission on the issue of manipulations, fake voter cards, voters and removal of them, the Election Commission of India has directed officials to link Aadhar numbers and also phone numbers with Electoral roll data in all states, Union Territories.
Meanwhile, an image showing a voter list published by the Election Commission is in circulation with the claim that the list shows a man named Ramkamal Das listed as a father to 43 sons who all live in the same house. Among these sons, 13 of them are born in the same year and all of them are 37 years old. Some social media users shared the image with captions like “According to Election commission’s data this man ‘Ramkamal Das’ has as many as 43 sons all living in the same house. Don’t seek any logic. 13 of those sons were all born in the same year. That’s how authentic ECI is. #RahulGandhi #
Here is the archive link of the claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. The person listed as the father of all the people is their Guru. He is the head priest of Ram Janaki Math.
When we checked the image using Google reverse image search, we found reports published in the year 2023. Old news reports published in 2023 state that the voter list showed him as father of 48 sons. A report published by ETV Bharat states that a picture of the voter list of ward number 51 of Varanasi shows a man as the father of 48 sons. The big thing is that the father of 48 sons shown in the viral voter list is still unmarried. But, the surprising thing is that this voter list has also been officially confirmed to be correct.
This voter list of ward number 51 of Varanasi is going viral on social media. In the list, 13 children are 37 years old, five are 39 years old, four are 40 and the other one is 42 years old. The name of the father is Swami Ram Kamal Das, the founder of the Ram Janaki temple of Gurudham, a well-known saint of Varanasi. According to the list, he has 48 sons. Not only this, the address of his temple located in Gurudham has also been established as a house number in the voter list. Everyone is surprised to see this post of Swami Ram Kamal Das's 48 sons. Further, the Swami Ji's secretary has confirmed that the list is correct.
Confirming this, Swami Ram Kamal Das's secretary Rambharat said that the list is completely correct. Swami ji is unmarried. However, the Guru-Shishya tradition is followed in our ashram. Hence, all the students living in this ashram consider Swami ji as their Guru-father. This is the reason why he has registered Guru ji's name in place of his father's name in the voter list.
According to Jagran, in the first phase of the municipal elections, the voter list of Ward No. 51 of Bhelupur became a topic of discussion on Thursday. In fact, in the voter list of Khojwan-Kashmiriganj of Ward No. 51 Bhelupur, the name of the father of 48 voters was registered as Ram Kamal Das. The age of the voters was different, but the address was the same - House Number B, 24/19. This news spread as soon as it entered the internet media. Even the SP issued an appeal to the District Election Officer to take cognizance of this. However, as soon as the truth was known, everyone kept quiet. Actually, Swami Ram Kamal Das Vedanti is the head priest of Ram Janaki Math Khojwan. Math manager Rambharat Shastri said that after joining the Guru-disciple saint tradition, the name of the disciples is changed and the name of the Guru is written in place of the father's name. Earlier, Swami ji's name was registered as the father of 150 people. This number has now come down to 48.
Therefore, the viral image in circulation is from 2023 and is from the Varanasi assembly elections. The person registered as a father to so many persons is their guru. The claim is Misleading.