FACT CHECK: No, West Bengal legislative assembly election dates have not been announced
A graphic of an election schedule is viral on social media. Users claim that it shows the dates of the 2021....
By Newsmeter Network Published on 17 Feb 2021 1:36 PM IST
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".
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.
Clearly, false information about the 2021 West Bengal Assembly Elections were shared online.
