Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission on Friday issued an advisory to all political parties to maintain decorum and utmost restraint in public campaigning and raise the level of election campaigning to “issue” based debate.

The poll panel issued the advisory while taking note of the various trends and cases of plummeting levels of political campaign discourse in recently held elections.

The Commission said it has also put the star campaigners and candidates on a ‘notice’ in case of violations that followed the previously known methodologies during elections to avoid Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

The poll panel said it will assess any indirect MCC violations as per advisory as a fair basis to re-work the notices to be given in terms of time and content in issue in the forthcoming elections.

For the Lok Sabha elections and polls to four State Legislative Assemblies, all phases and geographical area of elections shall be the basis to determine “repeat” offences, it said.

While acknowledging the need to keep a balance between the freedom of expression and level playing field, the advisory noted that the Commission has been following a self-restrained approach since the previous few rounds of elections, presuming that its notice would serve as a moral censure to the candidate or star campaigner.

“No appeal shall be made on the basis of caste/communal feelings of the electors. No activity, which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes/communities/religious/linguistic groups, shall be attempted,” read the advisory.

The political parties and leaders shall not make false statements, utterances without factual basis aimed at misleading the voters. Criticism of other parties or their workers on the basis of unverified allegations or on distortions shall be avoided, it said.

‘’No temples/mosques/churches/gurdwaras or any places of worship are to be used for election propaganda or electioneering. References which ridicule the relations between devotee and deity or suggestions of divine censure shall not be made,” the advisory said.

Among others, no aspect of the private life, not connected with the public activities, of the leaders or workers of other parties is to be criticized. Low level personal attacks to insult the rivals shall not be made.