NEW DELHI: a fresh controversy sparked when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell Chief Amit Malviya on Tuesday tweeting the dates for the Karnataka Assembly Elections even before the Election Commission. Shortly after the incident, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala took a dig on BJP and said that the BJP has become the 'Super Election Commission'.

Surjewala took his official twitter handle and said, "BJP becomes the 'Super Election Commission' as they announce poll dates for Karnataka even before the EC."

Questioning the Election Commission's reliability and integrity, the Senior Congress leader said, "Will EC now issue the notice to BJP President, Amit Shah and register an FIR against BJP IT Head for leaking EC's confidential information?"

In a while, before the Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat announced the election dates, Malviya tweeted that the polling will be held on May 12 and the results would be declared on May 18.

When EC Chief Rawat asked how Malviya announced the voting and counting dates even before the EC made the official declaration, he termed it as a serious issue and assured that action would be taken if the body finds any unlawful activity.

While the polling date matched with what Malviya tweeted, the date for counting of votes was unlike. Instead of March 18, the EC announced it as March 15. But Malviya deleted the tweet a few minutes following the storm.

Here are the official important dates announced by the Election Commission:

Notification: April 17, 2018

Last date of nomination - April 24, 2018

Date of scrutiny of nomination - April 26, 2018

Last date of withdrawal - April 27, 2018

Date of poll - May 12

Date of counting of votes - May 15