EC revokes Congress’ Kamal Nath’s star campaigner status

Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath is no longer a "star campaigner" in Madhya Pradesh by-polls, the Election Commission ordered on Friday  after a series of controversial remarks by the Congress leader. The Commission said his star campaigner status was being revoked for "repeated violation of model code of conduct" and for "complete disregard" of warnings to him.

The Commission has slammed Nath for using the word ‘item’ for a woman candidate and said that the usage of the word for a woman constitutes violation of the advisory issued by the commission. The Commission has further expressed its displeasure and said that despite being a leader of a political party, Nath is repeatedly violating the provisions of Model Code of Conduct and breaching the ethical and dignified behaviour. Taking another complaint in consideration, where the Congress leader has spoken against current state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and referred to him as “mafia” and milawatkhor”, the Commission has said that its report confirms violation of model code of conduct.

If any campaign is done by Nath from now onwards, the entire expenditure will be borne by the candidate in whose constituency the campaign is being undertaken, the Election Commission ruled in its order. The order further read that the Model Code of Conduct has evolved over several decades with the consensus of all the political parties to maintain level playing field as well as ethical and dignified behaviour during the campaigning before the elections.