The Election Commission of India (ECI) is investigating charges that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi breached the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). During the present election campaign, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) expressed worry about activities that could foment hatred and division on the basis of religion, caste, community, or language.

In response to these claims, the ECI has demanded that both leaders respond by 11 a.m. on April 29th, seeking an explanation of the reported cases of MCC violations.

As a preliminary step, allegations against Modi and Rahul were exchanged with BJP President JP Nadda and INC President Mallikarjuna Kharge, respectively.

Political parties will have to accept primary and increasing responsibility for the actions of their candidates, particularly star campaigners. Campaign speeches by high-ranking officials have far-reaching implications, according to the ECI.

“The grant of the status of the ‘Star Campaigner’ statutorily lies entirely within the realm of the Political Parties under Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the Star Campaigners are expected to contribute to a higher quality of discourse, inter alia, by way of providing an all-India perspective, which sometimes gets distorted in the heat of the contests at the local level,” according to the notice issued by the poll panel.

“Thus, Star Campaigners are expected to give corrective action or a healing touch when the intensity of a local campaign disturbs or accidentally crosses such boundaries. The Star Campaigners are thus expected to use this privilege to “propagate the programme of the political parties,” and as a result, their speeches in the campaign area must be considered at a higher level of conformity, it added.