lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 28, 2019 10:28 IST

The Election Commission is learnt to have issued a show cause notice to the Railways and Civil Aviation ministries over the use of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pictures on rail tickets and Air India boarding passes as prima facie it violates the model code of conduct.

The code came into force on March 10 when the poll body announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls beginning April 11.

Sources in the poll panel said prima facie the railways and Air India have violated the model code of conduct, and referred to clause VII of the code which states that “issue of advertisement at the cost of public exchequer ... regarding achievements with a view to furthering the prospects of the party in power shall be scrupulously avoided”.

In a complaint to the EC, the Trinamool Congress had recently claimed that the “...railway tickets issued by the Indian Railways contain achievements of the party in power at the Centre (BJP) with regard to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which is being displayed at the cost of public exchequer and obviously to influence minds of the voters.”

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.