The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India at national and state level. The commission has the powers under the Constitution, to act in an appropriate manner when the enacted laws make insufficient provisions to deal with a given situation in the conduct of an election. Being a constitutional authority Election Commission is amongst the few institutions which function with both autonomy and freedom, along with the country’s higher judiciary, the Union Public Service Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. It’s a permanent constitutional body.
The dates for the West Bengal assembly elections are yet to be announced, however, if reports are to be believed the Election Commission is planning to hold polling in the state in six to seven phases. The final decision regarding the Bengal election dates will be taken after February 15, says reports. The assembly elections are also due in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry this year. Since the tenure of the respective legislative assemblies of the four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry will end in May, the assembly elections are expected to take place in April in all the five units. Some netizens are claiming, that the election schedule for Bengal has been announced. According to them, the elections will be held in seven phases between April 1 and May 17. According to Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) it has been found that the viral schedule as of the upcoming elections in Bengal actually mentions polling dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state. The 2021 assembly election schedule for Bengal is yet to be announced.
A claim reveals that while it says elections will start from April 1, the actual dates start from April 11. Again, at the bottom it says, “The Election Commission announced that the general elections will be held in seven phases across India and the final counting of votes will take place on May 23.” The schedule of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal was listed in the official website of Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal. The viral schedule is a rip-off of the detailed polling information provided for the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in pages 112 and 113 in this official press release. Even the poll dates mentioned here are the same. The only difference is that “2019” has been changed to “2021”.
