Fact Check: ECI has not announced poll dates for UP, Punjab, viral claims are fake

"Just in. Election Commission of India has announced the dates for elections in four states," reads the message.

(1) Goa 15 March 2022, (2) Manipur 19 March 2022, (3) Punjab 27 March 2022, (4) Uttar Pradesh 14 May 2022.

NewsMeter received the viral message on WhatsApp.

Original claim:अभी-अभी इलेक्शन कमीशन ऑफ इंडिया नई दिल्ली के निर्देशानुसार चार राज्यों का विधानसभा चुनाव डेट घोषित हो चुका है जिसमें

(1) गोवा 15 मार्च 2022

(2) मणिपुर 19 मार्च 2022

(3) पंजाब 27 मार्च 2022

(4) उत्तर प्रदेश 14 मई 2022

Similar claims have been made on Facebook and Twitter as well. To view click here.

The election date for Uttarakhand has also been given in some claims.

(Archived )

Fact check:

The claim is false.

Firstly, NewsMeter checked the website of the Election Commission of India. We did not come across any election dates.

However, the team looked for upcoming elections.

After this, we also checked for the press release section of the website. We could not find any press release related to the assembly elections.

https://eci.gov.in/files/category/11-press-releases/

We found the last press release dated 21 October 2021. These press releases were regarding the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in the entire district during by-elections and advice to political parties/contesting candidates for compliance with the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during this period.

Further, this correspondent found data related to Goa, UP, Uttarakhand, and Punjab in the `Future Elections' section.

The screenshot can be seen below.

https://eci.gov.in/elections/future-elections/

According to the screenshot, the dates shown in the yellow circle are the dissolution of the assembly in these states.

Also, we also tried to check different news websites, but they have not reported poll dates.

Hence, the claim is false.

The Election Commission has not yet announced the dates for the assembly elections to be held next year.