Congress lodges complaint against Shinde Sena’s ‘covert ads’ on entertainment channels
Mumbai: Maharashtra Congress on Friday demanded registration of an FIR against chief minister Eknath Shinde and a TV channel for allegedly violating the model code of conduct. Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant met Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chockalingam at his office in Mantralaya with a demand to take action against Mr. Shinde. Meanwhile, the state branch of ECI has constituted an Electronic Media Monitoring Committee (EMMC) to monitor poll related news telecasts on various news channels.
Mr. Sawant claimed covert advertising by Eknath Shinde’s party on an entertainment television channel during Marathi daily soaps. He submitted video clips along with a memorandum to the EC.
In his post on X, the Congress leader said, “Mahayuti has begun using covert advertising as a strategy. Mahayuti (Shinde Sena) advertisement was openly displayed in Star Pravah’s serial "Groghari Matichya Chuli," which aired a day before yesterday evening and was re-aired at 12 noon as well as 4 pm yesterday. Similarly, a similar commercial was shown in another serial "Prema Chi Gosht" and most likely in other serials as well (sic)....”
In his memorandum, Mr. Sawant also demanded an inquiry into the money paid for the advertisements alleging that the use of black money cannot be ruled out.
After the meeting with Maharashtra CEO, Mr. Sawant told this newspaper that the CEO has assured him action in this case, which is peculiar in nature and perhaps reported for the first time in the country .
Officials in the CEO office said that they have taken a serious cognizance of the Congress leader’s complaint and will take legal action after following due procedure.“We have taken a serious cognizance of Sachin Sawant’s complaint. We will take legal action after investigating his complaint,” the officials said.
A senior election official said that the CEO office has instructed the DGIPR to ask the entertainment channels to abide by model code of conduct before telecasting any advertisement on their channels or else the action will be initiated against them as well.
Meanwhile, the ECI has set up an Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) to monitor election related news telecast on various television channels. This step was taken in view of the State Assembly Election in the state scheduled to be held on November 20. “The ECI will monitor each and every news telecast on various TV news channels on the polling day and also on the day before the polling. For this the state-level and district-level media monitoring and control rooms are working in Mumbai and the other districts of the state,” the officials said.