Karnataka election date: Cong's Srivatsa faces probe, BJP's Malviya doesn't
The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday announced the poll dates for the Karnataka Assembly elections, which sparked a war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when their respective social media cells tweeted the poll dates before the EC announcement. The EC set up a committee to probe the leak. Here are the top 10 developments around the announcement of dates for the Karnataka Assembly elections 2018 and the controversy surrounding BJP IT cell chief's prescient tweet: 1) Chitradurga Mutt's head seer urges Amit Shah to support minority status for Lingayats Seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of Chitradurga Mutt on Wednesday wrote a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, requesting him to support the Karnataka government's decision of granting minority status to Lingayats community. 2) In a tweeted, Surjewala said, "Yesterday, Union Minister, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi went
to EC with BJP IT head’s explanation. Surprising that EC exonerates BJP IT Head, who initiated ‘Date Leak’ and constitutes an inquiry thereafter." 3) EC working in favour of BJP, alleges AAP: The Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the Election Commission was working "one-sided in favour of the BJP", hours after the saffron party's IT cell chief announced the Karnataka Assembly polls date in a tweet before an official declaration. 4) Youth Congress activists protest against Assembly poll date leak: Scores of Indian Youth Congress activists on Tuesday staged a protest outside the Election Commission office here over alleged leak of the date of Karnataka Assembly election. 5) BJP, Congress welcome single-phase Karnataka polls, JD(S) terms it a setback: Congress and BJP in Karnataka welcomed the single-phase Assembly polls on May 12, while regional party Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) termed it a setback. 6) Election Commission orders probe into Karnataka poll date leak: The Election Commission on Tuesday formed a six-member panel to probe the leakage of poll dates for Karnataka assembly polls and submit a report within seven days. 7) Picked poll date from Times Now TV, Amit Malviya tells EC: After his tweeting of the Karnataka poll date ahead of the EC's formal announcement created a controversy, BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya on Tuesday told the Commission that he had picked the date from the Times Now news channel. 8) Amit Shah's blooper, calls BS Yeddyurappa corrupt: Amit Shah, while speaking to reporters, mistakenly called B S Yeddyurappa corrupt, while he perhaps meant Siddaramaiah. 9) He is right: Siddaramaiah on Amit Shah's gaffe: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a jibe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah after the latter mistakenly referred to the government of his party's own chief ministerial candidate, BS Yeddyurappa, as the "most corrupt" one. 10) Siddaramaiah govt has announced minority status to the Lingayat community: The Karnataka government recently accorded a minority status to the Lingayat community. This came days after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led government accepted the suggestions of the Nagamohan Das committee to grant a separate religion status to the Lingayats. Along with them, former JDS MLCs M C Nanaiah, Sarovar Srinivas and B Ramakrishna also joined the Congress. Important dates for Karnataka Assembly Election 2018 17 April: Issue of notification 24 April: Last date of nomination 25 April: Date of scrutiny
27 April: Last date of withdrawal of candidates 12 May: Date of Polling 15 May: Counting of votes/ Result day * Date of notification is April 17 and nominations should be filed by April 24. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is April 27. Counting of votes will take place on May 15.
ARTICLE SOURCE- BUSINESS STANDARD.