Soon after a fake list of Congress candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka was circulated on social media on Tuesday, the party clarified that it was a "fake press release and AICC has not issued anything regarding this".
On Monday, CM Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Dr G Parameshwara and veteran Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry began deliberations on the first list of candidates to be announced.
"A fake press release from AICC regarding the names of Congress candidates for the legislative assembly election Karnataka is being circulated in social media," said AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka K.C. Venugopal, in a statement.
“I would like to clarify that this is a fake press release and AICC has not issued any press release regarding this," he added.
Venugopal also said: "Now, the screening committee meetings are going on and any list regarding the same will be released only after the Central Election Committee meeting."
"Until now no CEC meeting has happened regarding the Karnataka Assembly Election," he added.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted: "I am told a list of Congress candidates for Karnataka Election is under circulation. The AICC has not approved the list of candidates yet. The "list" under circulation is fake. It has been done to create confusion."
"Please don't patronise products of the fake news factory," he added.
The list is likely to be announced before April 15 and the members of the selection committee discussed candidates to be fielded from Belagavi Bengaluru, Gulbarga and Mysuru.
After the selection committee meeting concluded on Tuesday, a list of candidates began circulating on social media. The list had names of Congress leaders, who were allegedly chosen to contest in said constituencies.
As soon as news of the list broke out, Congress announced that the list was fake.