“Fake Message Being Shared”: Poll Body On Lok Sabha Election Schedule

New Delhi:

The Election Commission of India (ECI) clarified on Friday that no dates have been announced yet for Lok Sabha elections.

ECI said that a fake message was being shared on WhatsApp regarding the election schedule adding that dates will be announced by the commission through a press conference.

“A fake message is being shared on WhatsApp regarding the schedule for #LokSabhaElections2024 #FactCheck: The message is #Fake. No dates have been announced so far by #ECI. The Election Schedule is announced by the Commission through a press conference. #VerifyBeforeYouAmplify,” ECI said in a post on X.

Taking note of the various trends and cases of plummeting levels of political campaign discourse in recently-held elections, the Election Commission earlier in February this year issued an advisory to all political parties to maintain decorum and utmost restraint in public campaigning and raise the level of election campaigning to “issue-based” debate.

The Election Commission will assess any indirect MCC violations as per advisory as a fair basis to rework the notices to be given in terms of time and content in the forthcoming elections, according to sources.

For the general election to the Lok Sabha and four state Legislative assemblies, all phases and geographical areas of the elections shall be the basis for determining “repeat” offences.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar recently emphasised that political parties should foster ethical and respectful political discourse that inspires rather than divides and promotes ideas instead of personal attacks. The poll body has also put ‘star campaigners’ and candidates on ‘notice’ in case of violations that followed the previously known methodologies during elections to avoid breach of the Model Code of Conduct.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)