EC sets up committee to probe alleged leak of Karnataka poll date

The Election Commission on Tuesday constituted a six-member committee to probe the alleged leak of the Karnataka Assembly poll dates in a section of the media. Social media representatives of the BJP and the State Congress tweeted the same ahead of its formal announcement.

The committee’s terms of reference is to enquire from the media organisations about the source of information on the election schedule before official declaration; and also enquire from Karnataka Congress social media in-charge Srivatsa Y.B. about the source of information of his tweets on the poll date.

“BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya’s name is not mentioned in the EC order as his letter on the issue has already been received,” said an official.

Earlier, a BJP delegation led by Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had met the Election Commission for a clarification on Mr. 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 (Mr. Malviya) shouldn’t have tweeted it,” Mr. Naqvi to the media after the meeting.

Through the State Chief Electoral Officer, the committee will seek details from “Kannada channel allegedly owned by a @BJP4india MP tweeted by Poulomi Saha regarding the source of information” on the election dates.

The committee, which will also look into lapses and suggest steps needed to prevent any such eventuality in future, has already approached the media organisations and individuals concerned, said the EC.

In a statement, the Commission said minutes before the official announcement of the election schedule, it was brought to its notice that Mr. Malviya had already tweeted the poll date as May 12 and the counting date as May 18.

“In another tweet, he also gave a reference of Times Now news channel as his source. Though the reports in tweets mentioned the polling date as May 12 and counting date as May 18, it was clarified that actual schedule of the Karnataka Assembly elections has the counting date as May 15,” said the Commission.