The Election Commission announced the polling schedule for the 224-member Karnataka assembly on Tuesday. Voting in Karnataka will be held on 12 May and will be held in a single phase, while counting is slated for 15 May.
However, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya had tweeted the Karnataka election dates well ahead of the Election Commission itself. In the tweet, Malviya got the date of vote right but the date of counting he mentioned was May 18, three days after the actual counting date.
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
But not only the BJP, even the Congress tweeted out the voting dates in Karnataka, while the Election Commission announced the dates half an hour later.
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)When asked about Malviya’s revelations, Chief Election Commission OP Rawat said that it was possible that ‘certain things maybe have leaked’, adding that it will be ‘investigated’.
Speaking to the media, union minister MA Naqvi played down the allegations stating that Malviya had gotten information from at TV channel.
Malviya did clarify that his controversial tweet was based on information from a news site (TimesNow), he deleted the tweet in an apparent bid to avoid further embarrassment to himself as well as his party.
The Congress promptly attacked the saffron party. Its spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the party has become 'Super Election Commission.'