The Chessboard - Ep 3: Has 2019 been the most abusive poll campaign ever?

In episode 3 of Business Standard’s political podcast, Ankur Bhardwaj and Aditi Phadnis discuss the SC’s notice to Rahul Gandhi, abusive poll campaign and phase two of polls

We are now in the middle of an intense and rather heated election campaign all over India. Phase 1 of voting took place on 11 April and phase 2 takes place on Thursday, 18th April.

97 constituencies across 13 seats will go to polls on that day. This would include all 39 seats in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

On Monday, the SC also heard a contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Congress President Rahul Gandhi. The BJP MP alleged that Rahul Gandhi had made a statement and wrongly attributed it to the SC. This was related to the slogan the Congress party has used in these polls to attack the prime minister.

The SC also questioned the Election Commission of India over the lack of action against leaders making communal appeals in campaigns. After the rap on the knuckles, the ECI acted and barred Adityanath from campaigning for 72 hours and Mayawati for 48 hours.

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