The Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya served the Meghalaya unit of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) with a show-cause notice after social media posts in its favour were made during the ‘silent period’ ahead of the February 27 Assembly election.
The silent period came into force at 4pm on Saturday, which is 48 hours before the close of polling. However, the CEO, Frederick Roy Kharkongor, observed that a video was posted on the Meghalaya Deserves Better Facebook and Instagram pages at 10:17pm on Saturday calling the TMC the “only credible alternative”.
This has been seen as a prima facie violation of the Representation of the People Act 1951. The TMC was ordered to take corrective action and provide an explanation by 5pm on Sunday. It was not known whether the TMC did take action but the two posts were unavailable to the public by evening.
Nowhere on the Meghalaya Deserves Better Facebook page is it mentioned that it has formal ties with the TMC but its history of posts, dating back to December 2021, are all heavily critical of the current state government and its cover photo openly admits to supporting the TMC.
