The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced that it has banned 15 video advertisements of various political parties in poll-bound Telangana due to alleged violation of the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) rules and regulations.

In a statement, Telangana chief electoral officer (CEO) Vikas Raj said that the advertisements withdrawn pertained to content that was distorted and misused on various social media platforms by individuals and political parties.

Of the 15 advertisements banned by the poll panel, six were from the Congress, five from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and four from the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The southern state is set to witness a triangular contest among these parties in the assembly elections scheduled for November 30.

The CEO explained that the state-level MCMC issues certification for advertisements by political parties. “Since October 9, as many as 416 advertisements by various political parties have been certified,” Raj said.

However, certification of 15 advertisements by the Congress, BJP and BRS have been withdrawn after it was found that these advertisements were being “morphed, distorted, misquoted etc and used beyond the purview of certification for which it was originally approved”, the senior poll officer said.

“In addition to the above, it is also observed that political parties are running advertisements on YouTube and similar platforms without prior approval. This also requires approval from MCMC,” he added.

The poll panel has forwarded the copies of the letters sent to the three parties to all electronic and digital media channels asking them not to telecast the withdrawn advertisements.

The CEO further said that certification for advertisements by political parties is a continuous and ongoing process. “Any political party or candidate can submit advertisement for certification to the MCMC at state and district levels,” he added.

The cancelled BRS advertisements pertained to attacks on the opposition parties while promoting the schemes introduced by the K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) government, while the five BJP advertisements that have been withdrawn were related to strong comments against chief minister KCR, his family and accusation of non-implementation of various schemes by the BRS government.

The six Congress advertisements banned by the poll panel featured a pink ambassador car — election symbol of the BRS — and a lookalike of KCR. The advertisements, released by the Congress on November 7, showed people questioning the BRS leaders for not fulfilling their promises, chasing them away and puncturing the car and pink balloons.

On November 11, the legal cell of the BRS lodged a complaint with the ECI, alleging that the advertisement campaign by the Congress on electronic media was offensive and damaging the personal reputation of the chief minister.

“The advertisements should be banned not only on news and entertainment television channels, but also on other social media platforms which are still airing the advertisements,” BRS leader and advocate Soma Bharat said.

He also made another representation to the EC on Monday, urging the poll panel to remove state Congress president A Revanth Reddy from the list of party’s campaigners for the upcoming assembly elections, alleging that he was repeatedly inciting Congress workers into attacking BRS candidates.

Bharat also asked the EC to take steps for disqualification of Reddy from further campaigning in the elections.

The Congress, however, protested the banning of advertisements of the party by the EC without providing it any prior notice. “It appears the decision was taken under pressure from the ruling party and the BJP, which fear defeat,” state Congress spokesperson Ch Kiran Kumar Reddy said.

Telangana BJP spokesperson N V Subhash said it was the prerogative of the EC to decide on the content of the advertisements. “We were trying to expose the failures of the BRS government. But the EC might have felt the content is objectionable. We cannot question its decision,” he added.