Akhilesh Pulls Up EC for Violating Its Own Directive and Using Photo of Jawans as Promo Material

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday pulled up the Election Commission for using a picture of Army jawans in a campaign promoting voting in the Lok Sabha elections that will get underway on April 11.

“We welcome EC ban on NaMo TV and movie. But how will the EC stop politicians from using the army to ask for votes, when they are using the army themselves?” Akhilesh said in a tweet.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister had attached a picture of a picture, purportedly put out by the poll panel, showing two soldiers looking into the camera. The photo is a promotion for the “My Vote Matters” campaign and bears the EC’s helpline and website details towards the bottom.

The EC directive to political parties and candidates had asked them to not use photographs of any defence personnel in their advertisements for the Lok Sabha polls.

In an order earlier on Wednesday, the EC had stopped the release of ‘PM Narendra Modi’ till the end of the Lok Sabha election, hours after the Central Board of Film Certification green lit the film for release on Thursday, the first day of polling.

The EC had also directed banning the release of any biography or any other poster or publicity material that serves the interests of a political entity. It added that the order also applies to Namo TV, the 24-hour channel promoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP that surreptitiously landed on DTH connections ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The opposition, which had complained to the Election Commission against the channel, welcomed the development. "I'm glad the Election Commission has taken this stand. It was crude propaganda and a monumental shame for the country that the ruling party indulged in actions like this," Congress leader Sanjay Jha said.