The Election Commission announced the dates for the Karnataka Assembly Elections on 27 March. However, minutes before Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat’s announcement, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to Twitter to share the dates of the polls – and he got them wrong.
Reacting to Malviya’s tweet, the EC said that a "legally and administratively befitting action" would be taken. A delegation led by BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met EC officials in connection with Malviya's tweet.
Amit Malviya’s tweet was based on a TV channel’s source. It had no intention to undermine the stature of EC. A Karnataka Congress leader had also tweeted the same thing. We agree that he (Malviya) shouldn’t have tweeted it.ANI quoted Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi as saying
Interestingly, an unverified handle, purported to be that of Karnataka Congress’s social media in-charge Srivatsa YB also tweeted the same dates as Malviya, again, before the dates were announced.
Srivatsa later tweeted saying that he saw local and national media flashing dates of the elections, and thought that it had been announced.
Times Now to Blame?
Malviya tried to fend off criticism by crediting the information to Times Now, which claimed to have been the first to break the news on television.
Malviya deleted his tweet after the EC’s official announcement.
Promising action, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said: “Certain things may have leaked for which Election Commission will take appropriate action. It will be investigated. Be assured that actions legally and administratively befitting will be taken”.
“Is Malviya the Real CEC of India?”
Twitter had a lot to say about Malviya’s tweet, with some users asking if the BJP’s IT cell will announce results before polls or if he was the ‘real’ CEC of India.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took to Twitter to say that the BJP was a “Super Election Commission” for having pre-empted the dates and said that the credibility of the EC was on the line.
(This is a developing story.)
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