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Source: india.com
Fact Check: Image Viral Claiming Dates Of West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 Are Announced
India, 17 Feb 2021 1:38 PM GMT
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An image has gone viral on social media with a claim that the dates of West Bengal State Assembly polls have been announced. The Logical Indian Fact-Check team debunked the claim.
An image is being circulated on social media that claims to show election dates for West Bengal's 2021 legislative Assembly.
The image shows a schedule with dates of the West Bengal elections in 7 Phases from April 1 to May 19. It includes names of 41 constituencies that would hold elections in the given phases. The image also claims that the Election Commission of India has announced that the votes would be counted on May 23, 2021.
The post is going viral on social media with similar captions that read, "West Bengal election dates." The image is titled 'West Bengal Election Dates: State to vote in 7 phases from April 1 to May 19. Year - 2021'.
A media/news company called Mirik times posted the information in the image as a status with the same claim.
The post has been archived here.
Same claims were also shared on Twitter.
Claim:
The image shows dates for West Bengal's Legislative Assembly elections 2021.
Fact Check:
The image attached in the viral post does not show dates for West Bengal's 2021 elections. These were the dates of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The West Bengal Assembly elections will take place later this year for which no official dates have yet been declared by the Election Commission of India.
The image shows the schedule which was exactly followed for the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 which were held in the months of April and May. The comparison below shows the original announcement of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the official website of the Election Commission and the image from the viral post.
2019 Lok Sabha elections from the official website of the Election Commission (top) and the image from viral post claiming to show West Bengal's 2021 elections dates (bottom).
We can also notice that the last line written on the viral image says "general elections will be held in seven phases across India", instead of West Bengal. Another error in the image is that it mentions 42 parliamentary constituencies and not the 294 assembly constituencies where the elections are going to be held.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) also dismissed this claim and tweeted about it. The tweet said, "#PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. No such announcement has been made by the Election Commission."
According to the reports, the Election Commission will conduct Bengal elections in seven or eight phases due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On the contrary, in 2016, the poll panel had conducted Vidhan Sabha Chunav in six phases from April 4 to May 5.
However, the Election Commission has not yet released the official dates for the 2021 election for the state.
Therefore, the claims along with the viral image are false. The dates for West Bengal's 2021 elections are not out yet.
This claim was previously debunked by BOOM.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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