First, Bharatiya Janata Party Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi decided to walk away from a Facebook-Newslaundry interview last week, at least partly because it was set to be aired on NDTV  – which isn't exactly the party's preferred broadcast outlet. Now the split between the BJP and NDTV has become official, all because of a Tweet.

On Saturday, the party put out an official press release insisting it is going to boycott the news channel. “Tweet being manufactured by a channel in order to hurt BJP is unprecedented,” the press release said. “BJP therefore has decided to keep away from panel discussions of NDTV for present.”

The controversy began as the BJP’s Central Election Committee was meeting Saturday. Reports suggested murmurs of unhappiness from a number of senior leaders; with this morning’s newspapers singling out Murli Manohar Joshi, who might have to give up his Lok Sabha seat in Varanasi to make way for Modi. Sushma Swaraj too reportedly expressed some dissent and then left the baithak early. She clarified later that she had important meetings in Bhopal to attend.

After some reports that Swaraj had taken a dig at Narendra Modi during the CEC meeting, NDTV's online team out a Tweet saying “‘If there is a Modi wave in India why is he looking for a safe seat in UP?’ tweets senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj.”

Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwarajBJP) had done no such thing. Although her last few Tweets did include criticism of the party, including dissent on an alliance or merger with the Badava Shramika Raitha Congress in Karnataka, NDTV’s online team seems to have mistaken hearsay from within the CEC and reported it as a Tweet from Swaraj’s official account.

The channel quickly backtracked. Both the official account and senior editor Barkha Dutt apologised for the error. Dutt even clarified that the mistake wasn’t made on air. “Incorrect tweet of @SushmaSwarajbjp was not on TV, it was an error by @ndtv online that based it on other unverified Tweets. NDTV apologises.”

Traditional NDTV baiters pounced on the gaffe. Among them was NitiCentral’s Kanchan Gupta, who Tweeted to Dutt saying, “I kept on pointing out to you garbage tweeted by @ndtv but then, you all are wiser and smarter”.

But the problem was compounded when wire agency PTI filed a story quoting External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid responding to Swaraj’s alleged Tweet.

“Sushma Swaraj and LK Advani's tweets are against Modi... when he cannot keep his senior leaders satisfied how will he succeed in satisfying the people of the country?” the agency quoted Khurshid saying. The story was picked up by 'The Hindustan Times', only confirming for conspiracy theorists that this was yet another plant by the liberal media.