FACT CHECK: No, West Bengal legislative assembly election dates have not been announced
HYDERABAD: A graphic of an election schedule is viral on social media. Users claim that it shows the dates of the 2021 West Bengal's Legislative Assembly elections
The graphic is shared with the caption, "West Bengal Election Dates" and is titled: "West Bengal Election Dates: State to vote in 7 phases from April 1 to May 19 Year - 2021".
West Bengal Election Dates has been declared pic.twitter.com/MMxfXpNnOo
— Santana Roy (@Santana25391236) February 15, 2021
FACT CHECK:
NewsMeter found that the dates shared are not of 2021 West Bengal's Legislative Assembly elections. It is in fact the schedule of 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.
We noticed that the image mentions "general elections'' and "seven phases across India", instead of West Bengal at the bottom. This gives the hint that the image doesn't show the Legislative Assembly elections dates.
We also checked the Election Commission of India's website about the dates of the upcoming elections and found no announcements.
We then searched online with the keywords, "WEST BENGAL GENERAL ELECTION DATES COOCHBEHAR" and found several news reports about 2019 Lok Sabha elections. We noticed that the same dates mentioned in the reports were also mentioned in the viral image. Click here to view the report by NEWS 18. This shows that the old dates of a different election have been falsely shared.
Next, we also found a tweet by the Press Information Bureau that states the dates for the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections have not been declared by the Election Commission of India.
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.
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) February 16, 2021
#PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No such announcement has been made by the Election Commission. pic.twitter.com/hifx3dRqLL
Clearly, false information about the 2021 West Bengal Assembly Elections were shared online.
Claim Review : West Bengal legislative assembly election dates have been announced
Claimed By : Twitter Users
Fact Check : False
Misha Rajani
Misha Rajani is a Fact Checker at NewsMeter. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from St. Francis College for Women. She has written a thesis on “ Role of social media in highlighting injustice”. Apart from pursuing a career in news writing, Misha is also skilled in graphic designing. You can follow Misha on Twitter @misharajani00
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