New Delhi:
Once election season heats up enough, even a retweet can ignite a political firestorm.
This is exactly what happened on Wednesday when Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh stormed New Delhi's district election officer for re-sharing a message from BJP Delhi's official contact on X (formerly Twitter) about a meeting between some party leaders and the Election Commission. civil servants.
Sharing a screenshot of the retweet, Mr Singh, in a post dripping with sarcasm, accused the District Election Officer (DEO) of bias and said the officer would formally join the BJP and campaign for the party. The DEO clarified that the social media handle is managed by an official of the social media cell, who had “accidentally” reposted the tweet and has been replaced.
In his post on Now the district election officer of the New Delhi Legislative Assembly says: 'If you like , what is there to fear?' ('jab pyaar kiya to darna kya').”
“The district election officer has now decided to join the BJP and campaign openly. Tomorrow at 11 am, the district election officer will formally join the BJP at the BJP office,” he sneered.
Leaders of the AAP and the BJP have been regularly meeting Election Commission officials – often to complain against the other party – ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled for February 5. The message from BJP Delhi retweeted by the DEO was about Delhi President Virendra Sachdeva, MP Bansuri Swaraj and others meeting Election Commission officials on Tuesday.
'Replace agent'
Replying to the AAP Rajya Sabha MP's post, the DEO clarified that the repost was immediately undone as soon as it came to light and the social media cell was directed to exercise caution.
“The official social media handle of the DEO is managed by the Nodal Officer, Social Media Cell, who is responsible for posting replies and handling tweets, particularly to counter misinformation and ensure accurate communication with the public to guarantee. It has come to light that this particular tweet was inadvertently reposted while replying to the said tweet as part of routine engagement with social media content. The repost was immediately undone as soon as it was brought to the attention of the DEO,” the DEO notice said.
The pollster said the chief officer of the social media cell has been replaced to ensure accountability and ensure that the incident is not repeated.
“Furthermore, the Social Media Cell has been directed to exercise greater caution in future engagements to maintain the integrity and impartiality of the DEO's social media communications. This clarification is issued to reaffirm the DEO's commitment to impartiality and compliance with DEO guidelines. Election Commission of India,” the post said.
Previous row
Mr Singh's comments on the district election officer came hours after the Aam Aadmi Party accused the Election Commission of being mum, while the BJP's Parvesh Verma, who is contesting against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi Assembly constituency, distributed shoes to the voters.
The returning officer of the constituency had subsequently filed a complaint with the police and a case was registered against Mr Verma for violation of the Model Code of Conduct.