LS Polls: Former Telangana CM Barred From Campaigning; Know Why

New Delhi: These are not good times for the once-mighty K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR.

The former Telangana chief minister was on Wednesday barred from campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections for 48 hours by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The punitive action against KCR was for his “derogatory” statements against the Congress.

The ban came into effect from at 8 pm this evening.

Consequently, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president won’t be able hold any public meeting, public procession, public rally, roadshow, interview, or make any public comment in media in connection with the ongoing election for two days.

Congress had complained to ECI on April 6 about some “objectionable” remarks made by KCR at a press meet in Sircilla.

ECI had issued a showcause notice over the alleged remarks, but KCR denied the charge in his response to the notice on April 23.

He had claimed that the meaning of his original statement was lost in translation: “The officers in charge of election in Telangana and Sircilla are not Telugu people, they hardly understand the local dialect of Telugu,” he said.

KCR also accused Congress of picking some sentences from his press conference out of context. “The English translation of the sentences is not correct and twisted,” he claimed.

ECI, after going through the content of Congress’ complaint and KCR’s reply, found that the BRS chief “violated the provisions of Model Code of Conduct” and strongly condemned his impugned statements.

KCR thus became the second politician to be banned from campaigning for 48 hours during the ongoing elections, following similar action against Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala.