Row over BJP tweeting date before Election Commission briefing

New Delhi: On a day when the Election Commission announced Karnataka Assembly poll voting on May 12 and counting on May 15, the BJP was left red-faced after its IT cell head, Amit Malviya, tweeted the polling date a few minutes before the official announcement by the EC.

The controversy prompted the EC to set up a probe committee that may seek help from central agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau and the CBI, while an enraged Congress urged the poll panel to issue notices to BJP president Amit Shah and register an FIR against BJP IT cell head.

Mr Malviya’s tweet, which was deleted after the uproar, mentioned the correct polling date but had mentioned the counting date as May 18.

Though the BJP tried to play down the incident saying Mr Malviya’s tweet was based on a news channel’s report, Congress dubbed the ruling party as the “Super Election Commission”.

As the controversy grew bigger, Mr Malviya wrote to the EC and said an English news channel had reported the poll date at 11.06 am and he tweeted about it at 11.08 am. He also said that a Karnataka Congress functionary also tweeted about the poll dates exactly at the same time as him.

He also submitted screen shots of the news channel report, his tweet and the Congress leader’s tweet and their timings.

The English news channel flashed at 11.06 am that Karnataka polls will be held on May 12. At 11.08 am, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted, “Karnataka will vote on 12 May 2018, counting on 18 May 2018.”

The two developments came almost 15 minutes before CEC O.P. Rawat announced at press conference around 11.23 am that the state elections will take place on May 12 and the results will be declared on May 15.

TMC chief Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP-led NDA government of “using and misusing” all agencies, including the EC.

After it faced flak over its IT head’s tweet, a BJP delegation led by Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met officials in the EC. Mr Naqvi told reporters that Mr Malviya should not have tweeted and that his tweet was based on a news channel report and he had no intention to undermine the EC’s authority.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that the EC’’ credibility was at test and asked if there would be any action against the ruling party and its chief Amit Shah.

“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 and register an FIR against BJP IT Head for leaking EC’s confidential information?” Mr Surjewala tweeted.

In his press conference to announce the poll schedule, Mr Rawat had described the leak as a “very serious” issue.