Trinamool asks EC to curb telecast of speeches on polling day

Kolkata, May 7 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress has written to the Election Commission (EC) seeking to restrain television channels from telecasting election speeches live on Wednesday.

BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi will be addressing three election rallies in West Bengal Wednesday.

"We have written to the EC urging it to restrain TV channels from live telecasting of the election speeches in the states where polling is on today (Wednesday)," said Trinamool spokesperson Derek O'Brien.

Incidentally, Trinamool chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will herself address four rallies spread over South 24 Parganas district and Kolkata city.

Modi, who has already held several public meetings in the state, will address rallies in Nadia district's Krishnanagar city followed by Barasat city in North 24 Parganas and Kolkata city.

Earlier, the Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee too had expressed concern over the live telecast of Modi's nomination rally in Varanasi city, which took place April 24, the day when 117 Lok Sabha constituencies in 12 states went to the polls.

"It was unjust and inappropriate that the rally was telecast across the country on a polling day. The damage has been done," Bhattacharjee said about Modi's April 24 rally.