TERMING A people advertisement by the BJP arsenic “misleading” for seeking to represent the Income Tax alleviation successful the Union Budget arsenic a “gift for Delhi”, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) connected Monday filed a ailment with the bureau of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, seeking enactment successful the matter.
In the advertisement, headlined ‘Modi government’s acquisition for Delhi’, the BJP has listed Union Budget announcements including “zero Income Tax up to Rs 12 lakh”, benefits for gig workers and lodging and h2o schemes.
“The advertisement falsely promotes Income Tax alleviation of up to Rs 12 lakh for Delhi citizens, which misrepresents the Union Budget 2025 announcement made by the Hon’ble Finance Minister… this Income Tax alleviation applies to each citizens crossed India, not exclusively to Delhi. The advertisement distorts this nationalist argumentation and presents it arsenic a localised payment exclusive to Delhi, thereby misleading voters successful the region,” says the ailment filed by Prem Sagar, a subordinate of AAP’s ineligible cell.
Calling it a usurpation of the Model Code of Conduct, the AAP ailment says: “The MCC mandates that each governmental advertisements indispensable beryllium really close and should not mislead the electorate… It is besides important to enactment that, arsenic per the Election Commission’s guidelines, immoderate governmental advertisement indispensable beryllium pre-approved by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC)…”
While announcing the Delhi Assembly elections past month, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had clarified that the presumption of the Union Budget would not beryllium affected by the MCC, but nary Delhi-specific announcements could beryllium made.
Sources said the EC is improbable to enactment connected the AAP’s complaint, saying it was not an MCC usurpation since the advertisement was issued by the enactment and not the government, and the enactment tin usage the government’s enactment during governmental campaigns. The EC is yet to person immoderate complaints regarding the advertisement, the root added.
As for the AAP’s allegation pertaining to pre-certification of the advertisement, the EC steps successful for each governmental advertisements connected physics media, but the regularisation lone applies to people advertisements connected the time earlier polling and connected polling time itself, said the source.
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The AAP has urged the EC to nonstop the BJP to retreat the advertisement from each platforms, initiate an enquiry to find whether the BJP obtained the required MCMC approval, instrumentality enactment against BJP president J P Nadda, in-charge of BJP’s nationalist accusation and exertion section Amit Malviya and Delhi portion president Virender Sachdeva. The enactment has besides sought a nationalist connection clarifying that the Income Tax alleviation is simply a nationwide benefit, and not circumstantial to Delhi.
Damini Nath is an Assistant Editor with the nationalist bureau of The Indian Express. She covers the lodging and municipality affairs and Election Commission beats. She has 11 years of acquisition arsenic a newsman and sub-editor. Before joining The Indian Express successful 2022, she was a newsman with The Hindu’s nationalist bureau covering culture, societal justice, lodging and municipality affairs and the Election Commission. ... Read More
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