BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted out wrong polling and vote counting dates for the Karnataka Assembly elections 2018, and was called out by social media for jumping the gun.
Malviya tweeted the date of the polls before the Election Commission announced it, prompting the panel to describe the leak as a “very serious issue” that merited a probe and “stringent action”.
Malviya, however, tweeted that he had only quoted a news channel.
His tweet came when Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat was addressing a press conference to announce the schedule for Karnataka polls but had not announced the date.
The BJP IT cell head said the election would be held on May 12 and counting would take place on May 18. While he was correct on the polling day, the votes will be counted on May 15.
When Rawat’s attention was drawn towards the tweet, he described it as a “very serious issue”.
BJP becomes the ‘Super Election Commission’ as they announce poll dates for Karnataka even before the EC.
Credibility of EC is on test.
Will EC now issue notice to BJP President, Amit Shah & register an FIR against BJP IT Head for leaking EC’s confidential information? pic.twitter.com/i3vU2iJpjH— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 27, 2018
He said people can conjecture but noted that as information has been “leaked”, the Election Commission will probe the matter and take “stringent action” both “legally and administratively”.
The CEC later said the tweet was incorrect as the actual date of counting was May 15 and not May 18.
Karnataka Congress social media in-charge also announced poll dates much before EC did. Incidentally, both BJP’s Amit Malviya & he tweeted at the same time, got polling date right but results date wrong. pic.twitter.com/vV8C6jZhW6
— Ruhi Tewari (@RuhiTewari) March 27, 2018
