EC issues notice to Haryana BJP for featuring child in election campaign video

Taking a serious view of a social media post by the Haryana unit of the BJP using a child in a campaign video, the Election Commission (EC) has served a notice on the party's state president seeking "immediate corrective steps".

Using children in campaign and other poll-related activities is violative of the EC's guidelines.

The state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been asked to submit his response to the show-cause notice by 6 pm on Thursday, 29 August.

The notice was issued by the state chief electoral officer after taking cognisance of a video posted by the Haryana BJP on its official X handle.

The Aam Aadmi Party's Haryana unit shared the 36-second video uploaded by state unit of BJP on its X handle on Tuesday, 27 August.

The state BJP has captioned the video: "Bache Bache Ki Pukar, Haryana Mein Phir Say Nayab Sarkar".

Haryana goes to polls on 1 October and the ruling BJP is eyeing to come to power for third consecutive term.

The video begins with a child saying "Haryana Mein Ab Ki Baar Saini Sarkar, Jai Hind!".

In the remaining part of the video, chief minister Nayab Singh Saini is seen interacting with children on different occasions in the past including on Raksha Bandhan festival, events which were non-political in nature.

In its post on X, the Haryana AAP alleged that the state BJP "has stooped so low that it is openly violating the model code of conduct by using children for its election campaign in Haryana".

"The BJP continuously keeps doing such things which violate the model code and the Constitution of the country. Now the time has come for the Election Commission to be impartial and take strict action against the BJP," AAP said in its post in Hindi.

When contacted, Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said state BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli has been asked to submit his response by 29 August.

According to the EC guidelines, no child should be involved in election process by political parties and election officials. Political leaders and candidates should not use children for campaign or canvassing or rallies etc in any manner, including holding a child in their arms, carrying a child in their vehicles or making a child a part of election campaign or rallies.

Further, use of children to create semblance of political campaign either by spoken words or poems or songs, display of insignia of political party or candidate, exhibiting ideology of political party, promoting achievements of a political party or criticising the opponent political parties or candidates should not be resorted to.

In February, the poll panel had asked political parties and candidates to refrain from using children in political campaigns and rallies "in any manner".

"Political parties are explicitly directed not to engage children in any form of election campaign, including rallies, slogan shouting, distribution of posters or pamphlets, or any other election-related activity," the EC had said.