EC’s schedule to end vicious ad campaign

By Our Correspondent

Hyderabad, Feb. 27: The “mudslinging” TV advertisements put out by the Congress and the Telugu Desam will go off air once the Election Commission announces the poll schedule.

On the basis of Supreme Court guidelines, the EC is setting up a screening committee which will certify election campaign ads before they are shown through channels.

The chief electoral officer, Mr I.V. Subba Rao, told this newspaper that the additional CEO, the director of Hyderabad Doordarsan and another person would be part of the screening committee which will scrutinise the ads being put out by political parties.

Sources said that the Telugu Desam and the Congress had spent about Rs 20 crore for the ad war in television channels in the last 40 days.

The Telugu Desam advertisement appeared first and showed two chicks talking about the “corruption” indulged in by Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

Then the Congress came out with a hastily prepared ad which talked about the cunning jackals in the Opposition party. Following this, the TD issued the YSR Atma Ghosha (the anguished soul of YSR) which has Dr Reddy praising Mr Naidu’s rule.

In return the Congress came out with an ad in which Mr Naidu confesses during a lie detector test that YSR is the real hero of the people. To rub it in, the Congress also issued NTR Atma Garjana (NTR’s soul roars) painting Mr Naidu as a back stabber.

This relentless castigation of each other over TV would come to an end since the EC rules don’t allow even indirect references to leaders of other parties in campaign ads.

Apart from this, the thousands of hoardings put up by the government with the Chief Minister’s photograph will also disappear.

Once the poll notification is issued, the Congress government will no longer be able to issue full page advertisements on its achievements to newspapers either.

“The rules are very clear,” said Mr C. Parthasarathi, commissioner of information and public relations. “Once the poll schedule comes, there shall be no government sponsored ads in any media.”