Campaigning deadline

The silent period has become redundant

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The Election Commission of India (ECI), as mandated by the Representation of the People Act, imposes a specific deadline on political campaigning ahead of any election it supervises. Under the rules, the duration of an election campaign is two weeks after the announcement of the final list of candidates and campaigning must stop 48 hours before voting ends.

In the age of the internet and artificial intelligence, this timetable may have outlived its utility. The two-week campaign deadline is in place to address a logistical issue, which is to enable ECI personnel to track whether parties or candidates are bribing voters, appealing to them in the name of caste or religion, and using government resources for campaigning. But with election schedules announced way ahead, it is—and has been—easy for politicians to observe these three strictures in the breach anytime before the deadline.

Then there are grey areas, such as whether events like the Union Budget should be rescheduled to adjust to poll timetables. The outlook here has been varied.