With exactly a month for the May 16 Assembly polls, the Election Commission is pulling out all the stops to ensure that no political party or candidate gets an unfair advantage over others through advertisements in the media beyond the accepted norms or through the illegal practice of ‘paid news’.
“We are already monitoring all TV channels and newspapers– both advertisements and the content favouring political parties. But from April 22, when the submission for nomination commences, we will also monitor advertisements of candidates and content favouring them,” Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni said. This could make it difficult for political parties in Tamil Nadu, since most of the major parties in the State run their own TV channels and publish papers, which primarily function as their mouthpieces.
Replying to a query, he said, “Most of the channels run by the parties would publicise their leaders, and the notional expenditure would go to the respective account of the parties. If the channels mention the candidates’ name and the constituencies they would be contesting from, the notional expenditure would go to their expenditure account.”
District-level and State-level Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) would keep a strict vigil on the on air content and that appears on print. “We are also monitoring content on social media.”
Surrogate advertisements
As for surrogate advertisements, in which a third party would place advertisements in papers urging to vote for a candidate, it was mandatory for them to get a permission from the candidate as well as the political party, Mr. Lakhoni said. “All expenditure made by the candidate would be monitored closely and they have to be within the prescribed limit of Rs. 28 lakh,” he said.
