New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday issued a notice to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, days after the two traded allegations of Model Code violations in poll speeches, and comment during rallies, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi.

The poll panel - whose response had been awaited as a litmus test on the conduct of a free and fair election in the country - has now sought a response from the presidents of the two parties - the BJP's JP Nadda and the Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge - by 11 am Monday, April 29.

In a two-page statement issued this morning, the ECI declared "'star campaigners' (Prime Minister Modi and Rahul Gandhi have been listed as such) are expected to contribute to a higher quality of discourse... which sometimes gets distorted in the heat of the contests at the local level".

It also seemed to hand over the task of ensuring this "higher quality of discourse" to the party.

The ECI said it is of the "considered view parties will have to take primary and increasing responsibility for the conduct of their candidates in general, and star campaigners in particular".

Effectively, as poll panel sources told NDTV, the "onus" is now on Mr Nadda and Mr Kharge to "reign in" their lead voices. Sources also pointed to transgressions by Congress leader Supriya Shrinate and the BJP's Dilip Ghosh earlier this election season.

However, in both those cases, the Election Commission - which ruled the two made "low-level personal attacks" - had issued notices of censure directly to the leaders in question.

In this instance, the poll panel told both the Congress and the BJP "... whereas yours is a national party and is therefore expected to be the standard-bearer in political and campaign discourse, and as such also set high standards of compliance of the Model Code of Conduct".

While the BJP has not yet responded to the EC's notice, Congress comms boss Jairam Ramesh took a jab at the poll panel, calling them "super super cautious when it comes to the PM and super cautious when it comes to the HM (Home Minister Amit Shah)."

The Election Commission, while announcing the dates of the seven-phase election, had warned politicians not to cross the "red line", which includes misleading ads and personal attacks on rivals, during campaigning.

Source: NDTV