The Election Commission has served a notice on the BJP’s Haryana unit for using a child in a poll campaign video shared on social media. The party has been asked to respond to the notice by 6 pm on Thursday.
Using children in campaigns and other poll-related activities is violative of the EC's guidelines.
The EC has taken a serious note of a post on X by the Haryana BJP’s official handle, which featured a child in an election campaign video.
The notice issued by the state election commission has asked the party’s state president to take immediate corrective action.
Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in Haryana on October 1.
In February, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the poll panel had asked political parties not to use children in campaigning "in any form whatsoever", including for distribution of posters and pamphlets or sloganeering.
“Political leaders and candidates should not use children for campaign activities in any manner including holding a child in their arms, carrying a child in a vehicle or in rallies,” the EC had said.
"This prohibition extends to the use of children to create the semblance of a political campaign in any manner including use through poem, songs, spoken words, display of insignia of political party or candidate," it had said in a statement.
The poll panel, however, had also noted that the mere presence of a child accompanied by their parent or guardian in proximity of a political leader who is not involved in any election campaigning activity by the political party, will not be construed as a violation of the guidelines.
