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BHOPAL/ NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh electoral office’s decision to ban broadcast or telecast of Congress’s ‘ Chowkidar Chor Hai’ campaign could effectively mean an all-India ban as media certification committees in other states can draw on the ruling.

The MP state-level media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) may have set a precedent for vetting Congress ads on the ‘chowkidar’ theme, Election Commission sources said.

While Congress said it would move the EC for a review, officials said there was no MCMC at the poll panel level to hear appeals on precertification of political ads in electronic media. Also, appeals against any decision of the state-level MCMC can only be filed in the Supreme Court in case the CEO-level committee at the state does not provide relief to Congress.

EC has received several complaints against Congress president Rahul Gandhi ’s reference to ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ as well as his general references to all Modis as ‘chors’, and is likely to take a view soon whether they violate the model code of conduct.

Congress on Thursday accused MP CEO V L Kantha Rao of acting under pressure from the PM and BJP, and said the body had given “no solid explanation for why the campaign, which was cleared by Rao earlier, has been banned”.

An order issued by joint chief electoral officer Rajesh Kaul on Wednesday said the state-level MCMC decided to ban the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ campaign and it should be taken off air immediately.

BJP had filed a complaint against the campaign, saying it was “malicious... harms the image of the PM”. “BJP appealed against the decision of the state-level committee, which had approved an advertisement of Congress. The application was accepted and use of advertisement was prohibited,” Rao told TOI.

Congress leader Shobha Oza said, “We had gone to the CEO’s office with the submission that BJP’s complaint, which said the campaign has not been approved by the EC, is false. We could not have run the campaign for so long without the EC’s approval. Besides, we have not used the name of any individual or a party and dubbed him as thief. We have only said that a ‘chowkidar’ is a thief. BJP, in its complaint, said ‘chowkidar’ is Narendra Modi, and we have called him a thief. It’s entirely their interpretation, not ours.”

BJP’s Deepak Vijayvargiya said, “Rahul Gandhi is trying to malign the image of the PM by using intemperate language for him. We are happy the state CEO has taken note of our objection.”

