In a significant move, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has imposed a 48-hour campaign ban on former Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), effective from 8 pm on Wednesday.
The action followed for making “derogatory and objectionable statements”against the Congress during a rally in the Sircilla district He was on the way from Kothagudem to Mahabubabad to participate in the roadshow, when the orders were released.
KCR termed the “selective action” of the ECI banning him from the poll campaign for 48 hours based on a complaint lodged by the Congress. He said the same ECI had not initiated action against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy who had repeatedly made derogatory and abusive remarks against him.
“Revanth Reddy vowed to remove my intestines and wrap it around his neck.He made several derogatory remarks against me. But there has been no action against him by the ECI,” he said while addressing a massive crowd during the roadshow as part of his election campaign in Mahabubabad on Wednesday evening.
The ECI’s decision came after a complaint from G Niranjan, senior vice-president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, regarding KCR’s statements made on April 5. The ban, effective from 8 pm on May 1, was enforced based on the violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
In response, the former Chief Minister submitted that he had confined his criticism to the policies and programmes of the Congress party in the State and their failure to fulfill the promises made during the Assembly elections, and did not criticise personal aspects of any Congress leaders.
“The complaint is made by the Congress party by picking some sentences from the press conference out of context. The English translation of the sentences is not correct and are twisted,” he said in the reply. He maintained that no personal criticism against Congress leaders was made.
However, the ECI found his statements in violation of the Model Code of Conduct. Citing previous instances of KCR violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) since 2019, the ECI said the BRS president was issued several advisories and instructions earlier too regarding his speech.
