ECI seeks report from Maharashtra CEO on allegation of it hiring BJP-linked social media firm

Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 24

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The Election Commission of India said on Friday it has sought a report from the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) regarding accusations that the poll panel had hired a firm allegedly linked to the BJP’s IT Cell for its social media activities in the run-up to the state assembly elections held last year.

The ECI spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan said details regarding the accusations have been sought from the Maharashtra CEO.

“Regarding tweet of Mr Gokhale @SaketGokhale, Commission has sought detailed factual report in this matter from CEO Maharashtra with respect to alleged locale of the incidence immediately,” she said in one of her twitter posts.

Sharan was responding to a series of tweets put out by Saket Gokhale, an RTI activist.

Through his tweets, Gokhale claimed the firm that was hired by the poll panel to handle its social media accounts in the run-up to the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections was the same firm that was hired by the BJP. The firm is also owned by a BJP leader.

Gokhle in his tweets alleged that address of the social media advertisements posted by the Maharashtra CEO was ‘202 Pressman House, Vile Parle, Mumbai’, which he claimed the address of Signpost India, a government-empanelled agency with close ties to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

“The address 202 Pressman House was also used by a digital agency called Social Central. This agency is owned by Devang Dave who is the national convener of IT and social media for BJP’s Youth Wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM),” Gokhale claimed in his tweets.