Responding to the complaint filed against the NDPP-BJP alliance by the NPF for violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) has said that they had carried out a “mature and responsible” campaign that had “perhaps not been witnessed before”.
The complaint had been filed with the Nagaland Chief Election Officer against the advertisements put out by the NDPP-BJP that were published in local media on February 26.
A press release from NDPP, media and communications committee said that their campaign had never deviated from the MCC.
Likewise, it said that their campaign in print media, billboards, posters and banners had been carried out in “strict adherence” to the MCC.
Pointing out that no election related advertisement could be published or circulated without the prior approval of the ECI, the release stated that all advertisements and publicity material from the NDPP-BJP alliance had been released only after clearances from the ECI.
The clearance documents were also attached with the advertisements to be published when they are released to the print media, it said.
According to the release, the advertisement cited in the complaint did not make any commitments or announce any packages but contained highlights of the Prime Minister’s speech delivered on February 22, against which neither objections nor complaints were raised within the stipulated time by anybody.
“We refused to get drawn into a media war and ugly exchanges in the print media despite scathing attacks on our party”, it said.