Amit Malviya misleads twice on a Sunday- false claims on Telangana polls and GST

In the aftermath of the recently concluded assembly election in which the BJP suffered a setback, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted on December 23 that BJP, despite having a 7 percent vote share in Telangana managed to win just one seat, whereas the Owaisi led AIMIM with a vote share of merely 2.7 percent bagged 7 seats in the election.

In Telangana, AIMIM with just 2.7% vote share won 7 seats but BJP with 7% got just won. Let that sink in.

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 23, 2018

While the numbers cited by Malviya are correct, the claim is misleading. This is because while the AIMIM had a vote share of 2.7%, the party had contested on merely 8 seats, of which it won 7. On the other hand, BJP had contested 118 out of 119 seats in the state assembly. AIMIM thus has a far superior strike rate of 87.5 percent (7 out of 8) in comparison to the BJP’s dismal strike rate of 0.85 percent (1 out of 118). The complete details are available on the website of the Election Commission.

POLITICAL PARTY	SEATS CONTESTED	SEATS WON	SUCCESS RATE
AIMIM	8	7	87.5%
BJP	118	1	0.85%

FAUX PAS ON GST RATE REDUCTION

“Today is Sunday. A film and meal with the family has never been this affordable! – Tax on restaurant bill reduced to 5% instead of steep 30% earlier – Movie ticket taxed at 12% (up to Rs 100 or 18% for over 100), down from 28% earlier Middle class has never had it this good..” tweeted BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya on December 23.

Today is Sunday.

A film and meal with the family has never been this affordable!

– Tax on restaurant bill reduced to 5% instead of steep 30% earlier
– Movie ticket taxed at 12% (up to Rs 100 or 18% for over 100), down from 28% earlier

Middle class has never had it this good…

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 23, 2018

Referring to the decision by the GST council to reduce tax rates on over 20 goods and services, Malviya in his exuberance conveniently omitted the fact that the rates will be effective from January 1, 2019 and not from Sunday i.e. December 23. Malviya was contradicted by none other than his party, the BJP, which tweeted an infographic that said that the new rates will be applicable from January 1.

Moreover, this was confirmed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who spoke to reporters after the meeting of the GST council, according to a report by Business Today.

In charge of the BJP’s social media strategy, Malviya has indulged in misinformation on earlier occasions as well. Recently, he had shared a mischievously edited video clip of former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh.