The Election Commission has issued an advisory to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, asking him to be “careful” and “cautious” while making statements in public, sources said on Wednesday
The advisory to the Wayanad MP was issued after taking into account certain remarks made by him against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the assembly polls last year, they said.
It may be mentioned that the poll panel issued a show cause notice to the Congress leader November last year over his alleged remarks including ‘pannauti’(bad omen) against the Prime Minister during an election rally in Rajasthan.
The EC had then said the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the guidance of political parties and candidates’ provides that “criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.”
Notably, the poll panel last week 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 in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The EC issued the advisory while taking note of the various trends and cases of plummeting levels of political campaign discourse in recently held elections.