Following the Election Commission of India announcing the schedule of elections for Telangana, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force on Monday, October 9. As per the MCC guidelines, the Election Commission directed all political parties in the state to remove posters in public places and erase wall writings related to poll campaigns within 48 hours. Telangana will be going for polls on November 30 and the results will be declared on December 3, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, said on Monday.
All the Collectors and District Electoral Officers (DEO) in Telangana were directed to enforce the Code as per which, parties would not be allowed to deface government or public property and vehicles or unduly influence voters in any shape or form.
The office of the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer referenced two letters to enforce the MCC– from 2008 and 2021 for conduct of elections which laid down the prescribed guidelines. And a letter submitted by senior vice president of the state Congress party G Niranjan, requesting for fair opportunity of advertisement for all parties during the elections, was also referenced.
As per the guidelines carried forward from ECI’s 2008 and 2021 letters, the DEO has to ensure that any advertisement or billboard needs to ensure that all parties get equal opportunity of access to such an advertisement space.
This directive also limits the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and opposition parties in Telangana like the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to incorporate their proposed new schemes in their manifesto alone.
The BRS-led state government in the last week alone had announced and directed implementation of schemes like the Pay Revision Commission and creation of the employees healthcare trust. Going forward, parties are gagged from making electoral promises. Further, any election related programme will have to be first intimated to poll officials.