Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 date leak was mere speculation, should have been avoided: EC

NEW DELHI: The alleged leak of Karnataka Assembly Elections dates was just speculation, said the Election Commission of India on Friday. 

“Alleged leak wasn't a leak and was mere speculation,” said the poll commission. 

It added that the entire scenario could have been avoided if  'TV channels' and politicians refrained from tweeting out the dates. 

“Presentation of news item by TV channels and tweets by political party leaders regarding the dates, just as Commission was making the announcement, was avoidable,” said the EC.

Karnataka is all set to go to polls in a single phase on May 12 with the counting of votes scheduled on May 15. 

The poll schedule was announced on March 27 at the EC in the national capital.

Even before Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat announced the dates, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to microblogging site Twitter stating that the polling will be held on May 12 and the results would be declared on May 18. 

Later, it was discovered that Karnataka Congress' social head media in-charge Srivatsa also tweeted about the same dates at exactly the same time.

Both Srivatsa and Malviya were right about the single-phase poll date, but wrong about the election result date. 

A massive controversy erupted over the post with the EC coming under fire.

At the time, both the parties defended the tweets, stating that they were based on TV channel reports. 

With agency inputs