BJP IT cell chief tweets Karnataka poll dates before EC announcement, sparks row

Even before the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the Karnataka Assembly Elections, a controversy erupted over a post by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell chief Amit Malviya on microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday.

Before Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat declared the dates, Malviya tweeted that the polling will be held on May 12 and the results would be declared on May 18.

Disrupting the press conference of the Chief Election Commissioner, reporters asked Rawat as to how Malviya announced the voting and counting dates even before the EC made the official announcement. Taking cognisance of the same, Rawat termed it as a serious issue, and assured that action would be taken if the body finds any wrongdoing. He, however, went on to declare the dates.

While the polling date coincided with what Malviya tweeted, the date for counting of votes was different. Instead of March 18, the EC declared it as March 15. But Malviya deleted the tweet a few minutes following the controversy.

It is not sure whether EC had finalised the date after discussing with the BJP. It is also not sure whether EC had advanced the date of results to May 15 to convince the people that the BJP did not know the poll dates.