An image showing AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and union minister Smriti Irani is being widely shared on social media platforms. The picture is being shared with a claim that is related to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Election (GHMC). Many social media users have shared this picture with an angle of secret conversation before the election of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

A Facebook user Nilanjan Das shared the image with a caption saying, "What is Asaduddin Owaisi discussing with Smriti Zubin Irani? Mr. Goebbels  Amit Malviya should be able to tell."

Another Facebook page named Youth-Congress Basavakalyan shared the image saying, "Asaduddin Owaisi And BJP MP Smriti Irani."

Many Twitter users are sharing the image with a similar claim. 

Several claims about a "secret pact" between the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) have surfaced on social media platforms after AIMIM made a dramatic entry in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region cornering seats that traditionally went to older opposition parties like Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) emerged victoriously in the elections. 

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found this claim to be false. The viral picture is more than four years old when Asaduddin Owaisi and union minister Smriti Irani met during a meeting in Delhi. 

With the help of keyword search on Google, we found a similar picture shared from several profiles in August 2016. View the posts below and access their archived versions here and here.

On further investigating, we found that the AIMIM chief retweeted two pictures of his meeting with Smriti Irani on 23 August 2016. Owaisi wrote, "Why didnt 1 congi MP attends PowerLoom stakeholders meeting whereas I represented problems shows Cong is behal."

Taking a clue from here, we went through Owaisi's profile and found that he tweeted a set of pictures on August 22, 2016 with the caption. "2 crores people get employment through 50 lakh powerlooms country which is in dire straits needs review AntiDumping." In the picture, one can see Owaisi and Irani in the same frame. The duo can be seen wearing the same set of clothes as in the viral picture.

In conclusion, an old image from August 2016 when Owaisi met Irani during Powerloom Industry Stakeholders Meeting 2016 has been revived on social media platforms in the wake of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Election that took place on December 1.