Pre-poll highlights: BJP blocks NDTV over Twitter post

New Delhi, March 8: A major tiff has emerged between

and news channel NDTV. In a press release by the BJP site, the party states:

"Kind attention,
Tweet being manufactured by a channel in order to hurt BJP is unprecedented. BJP therefore has decided to keep away from panel discussions of NDTV for present."

What happened?

NDTV had mentioned a Tweet where Sushma Swaraj had apparently poked at BJP's Prime Ministrial candidate Narendra Modi during the CEC meeting. NDTV's online team had Tweeted,"If there is a Modi wave in India why is he looking for a safe seat in UP?"

However, the party claims that Sushma Swaraj has done no such thing although a couple of her Tweets did criticize BJP, including dissent on an alliance or merger with the Badava Shramika Raitha Congress of Karnataka, NDTV's online team misrepresented it as a Tweet from Swaraj's official account.

Following this, the channel backtracked. Both the channel editor-Barkha Dutt- and the official account apologised saying that the mistake was not made on air. NDTV also Tweeted:

'Incorrect Tweet of @SushmaSwarajbjp was not on TV, it was an error by @ndtv online that based it on unverified Tweets. NDTV apologises."

Meanwhile, the list for Congress candidates contesting the Lok Sabha election 2014 is out. Out of this, 19 seats have been assigned to West Bengal. Nandan Nilekani will be contesting from Bangalore South.

OneIndia News