The Election Commission (EC) does not have any plan to ban screening of Sudeep-starrer films during the run-up to Assembly polls in Karnataka, although the superstar has announced that he will campaign for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
After Bommai announced in a news conference in Bengaluru on Wednesday that Sudeep would campaign for him and the BJP, a lawyer based in Shivamogga, K P Sripal, has written to the EC, asking it to ban screening and telecast of movies, shows and commercials featuring the superstar till the declaration of results.
The model code of conduct (MCC) came into force across Karnataka on March 29 – the day the EC had announced the poll schedule. The EC, however, is unlikely to ban films and commercials of Sudeep, according to sources, who pointed out that the actor announced that he would campaign for Bommai during elections, but that he himself would not contest polls.
The Commission had, in 2014, decided that it could ban only the screening of films featuring actors who were contesting polls on Doordarshan, which is run by public funds. Telecast of films and commercial advertisements involving film actors contesting elections would not be restrained on TV channels or their screening in theatres, the EC had said in a letter to the chief electoral officers of the states.