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| - Fact Check: Fake West Bengal election schedule circulates on social media
A post circulating on social media claims that the election schedule for West Bengal has been announced. The upcoming assembly elections will be held in seven phases between April 1 and May 17.
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India Today Fact Check
As of now, dates for the assembly elections in Bengal haven’t been announced yet. The schedule viral on social media is of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with some modifications.
Elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are likely to be held in a few weeks. All eyes, however, are on Bengal where the Trinamool Congress and BJP are locked in a tight contest. According to reports, while TN and Kerala may have single-phase elections, polls in Bengal would be held in several phases.
Meanwhile, some social media users are claiming that the election schedule for Bengal has been announced. According to them, the elections will be held in seven phases between April 1 and May 17.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the schedule viral as of the upcoming elections in Bengal actually mentions polling dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state. The 2021 assembly election schedule for Bengal is yet to be announced.
The claim is viral on Facebook and Twitter. The archived version can be seen here.
Inaccuracies in claim
A careful look at the claim reveals that while it says elections will start from April 1, the actual dates start from April 11. Again, at the bottom it says, “The Election Commission announced that the general elections will be held in seven phases across India and the final counting of votes will take place on May 23.”
This is the first clue which indicates that the schedule is most likely related to the general elections, and not the upcoming assembly election in Bengal.
Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha constituencies and 294 assembly seats. In the viral schedule, the number of constituencies mentioned is 42. This also makes it clear that it cannot be the schedule of assembly elections.
With the help of keyword search, we found that the viral schedule has been created by copying the schedule of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The schedule of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal as listed in the official website of Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, can be seen here. The viral schedule is a rip-off of the detailed polling information provided for the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in pages 112 and 113 in this official press release. Even the poll dates mentioned here are the same. The only difference is that “2019” has been changed to “2021”.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) has also called the viral schedule “fake” and said no such announcement of Bengal assembly elections has been made by the Election Commission.
A document is doing rounds on social media claiming that the dates for 2021 #WestBengal Legislative Assembly elections have been declared by the Election Commission of #India.
#PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No such announcement has been made by the Election Commission. pic.twitter.com/hifx3dRqLL — PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) February 16, 2021
We did not find any mention of the election dates for Bengal on the Election Commission website. Thus, it is clear that the schedule of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is being falsely shared as the dates of 2021 assembly polls in the state.
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