Even though the Election Commission has not announced any dates for the Assam Assembly election, fake dates have started going viral on social media. Apart from this, fake dates for West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala are also going viral.
Headline8 explored the viral posts. All the dates in our investigation turned out to be fake. So far, the Election Commission has not made any announcement regarding the dates for the upcoming assembly elections.
What is the viral post?
Facebook user Bikash Baruah uploaded a post on February 1, stating that the dates for the Assam election were announced. Besides Assam, the post contained fake dates for elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Pondicherry.
The investigation
Headline8 first resorted to Google search. We had to know whether the Election Commission has made any announcement regarding the dates of assembly elections to be held in Assam and other states. On Google, we did not find any such news that stamps the veracity of the viral posts.
After this, we contacted the Election Commission and Aaj Tak’s office regarding the viral post. Everyone called the viral dates of the election fake. Election Commission spokeswoman Shefali Sharan informed us that no such announcement has been made yet.
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khare on the viral posts said that he had no information of such dates.
At the end of the investigation, we investigated the user who posted the fake dates. We came to know that Facebook user Vikas Barua hails from Assam. He currently lives in Goa.
CONCLUSION
Viral dates of the elections in Assam and other states are fake. No such announcement has been made yet.