Leaders must set 'good examples' during campaign discourse: EC
text_fields
New Delhi: Top leaders of the political parties must set "good examples" of campaign discourse expected of them, the Election Commission said on Tuesday, citing model conduct breaches in the ongoing Lo Sabha elections, PTI reported.
The Election Commission also asserted that it was primarily the leaders' responsibility to correct their poll speeches in the remaining phases of the election to avoid a permanent dent in the social fabric of the country.
Coming out with its second report on the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct since the March 16 announcement of the Lok Sabha election, the poll panel said it has disposed of over 90 per cent of complaints, and no major complaint from parties was pending, except some by the Congress and the BJP.
"With about two months completed since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect, a campaign by various political parties and candidates at constituency level has largely remained violence-free, less noisy, less cluttered and intrusive, free of inducement...," the commission added.
Last month, EC issued notices for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Wayand MP Rahul Gandhi's statements during election campaigns on alleged violations of the election Model Code of Conduct. The notices were sent to BJP national president JP Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, stating that they are demanding explanations by Monday over the statements by their "star campaigners", Scroll reported.
The EC stated in the notices that the campaigners are expected to contribute "higher quality of discourse". It asked the two party presidents to inform all their star campaigners to maintain the high standards of political discourse expected from them.
Against Modi, the Congress, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) moved the Election Commission over his statements that Congress was planning to distribute citizen's property among "infiltrators" and Muslims if they came to power.
