ECI Bans Congress' Campaign Ads

The Election Commission has banned the Congress' election advertisements on television and social media platforms and has written to television channel management as well as social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook to stop airing the advertisements. They were also asked to remove the content immediately.

The Congress said the advertisements were approved by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) but were being stopped by the Election Commission under pressure from the BRS and the BJP.

The EC took this decision following a complaint lodged



by the BRS that the Congress’ advertisements, featuring a pink car (the BRS symbol) and a look-alike of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, were in violation of EC norms.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj said that the political advertisements approved by the State Level Certification Committee for the Assembly General Elections were being misused. The office of the Chief Electoral Officer stated in the letter that they cancelled the advertisements as they were violating the Model Code of Conduct by airing them at will.