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Poll ad on social media: Chandigarh election dept drops complaint against BJP
“After finding the pre-certification and response satisfactory from the BJP, the complaint has been resolved and no action has been taken against the party,” said Chandigarh district election officer-cum-deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh
The Chandigarh election department has dropped strict action against the local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over a paid election advertisement on social media, after the party submitted satisfactory response and permissions to the department.
While acting on a complaint via cVigil app, the department had sent a notice to local BJP chief Jatinder Pal Malhotra, seeking details of the advertisement and pre-permissions for running it on social media.
“A paid election advertisement is being run on Snapchat and other social media platforms. The advertisement had political content and displayed photos of BJP leaders. A complaint was registered against the party via the app for violation of the model code of conduct and to check if payment was made for the advertisements. Since the Chandigarh election department had not issued any permissions for paid advertisement to the party, an explanation was sought from the BJP,” said officials from the department.
In his response, the BJP chief confirmed that the advertisement was being run after the necessary permissions from the Chief Electoral Office, Delhi, assigned by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for granting the said permissions.
“After finding the pre-certification and response satisfactory from the BJP, the complaint has been resolved and no action has been taken against the party,” said district election officer-cum-deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh.
Singh added, “The election department is keeping a close watch on violations of the model code of conduct as the cVigil app complaints are being registered. We have deployed special teams and strict action will be taken against those found violating the norms.”
