The Election Commission of India (ECI) has reprimanded Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, for making ‘unverified allegations’ against BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar in utter violation of the model code of conduct (MCC).
The development followed Tharoor’s reported allegation that he made during an interview with a news channel that the BJP candidate and Union Minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, had offered money to voters and religious leaders in exchange for votes.
The BJP filed a complaint with the ECI stating that Tharoor accused BJP candidate and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of offering money to voters and religious leaders in exchange for votes.
Thiruvananthapuram sub-collector and MCC nodal officer Aswathy Sreenivas conducted a hearing following the complaint. Tharoor submitted that in no part of the interview, did he name the candidate or mention the party.
He said the allegation was only a ‘general observation’ which the people had told him. The channel representative submitted before the poll panel that no part of Tharoor’s interview was edited and that only the impugned statement that formed the part of the actual interview was aired.
However, the MCC nodal officer found his explanation to be untenable “as the imputations when read along with the context of the interview pointed at Rajeev Chandrasekhar”. It was also observed that Tharoor had offered no proof of the “unwarranted” statements that he made in the interview.
Responding to the development, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the warning served by the ECI is a fitting reply to the “smear campaign” unleashed by the UDF candidate. Addressing mediapersons here, the BJP leader accused both the Congress and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) of attempting to divert public attention from development issues and stagnant growth in Thiruvananthapuram.