The Election Commission of India sent notices to Ministry of Railways after social media users reported that tea was being served on a Shatabdi train in paper cups with PM Modi’s campaign line, “Main Bhi Chowkidar (I’m also watchman)”, printed on them. The EC granted Railways time upto Saturday evening to reply to the summons.
After the cups went viral on social media, the Railways withdrew the cups, fired and fined the contractor INR₹ 1,00,000. The railways also said that it was an “unintentional and inadvertent mistake”.
The advertisement of the cup was from a NGO called, Sankalp Foundation.
In another incident, the Election Commission also issued notices to Civil Aviation ministry for violating the model code of conduct by printing boarding pass with photos of PM Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani as part of an advertisement for the Vibrant Gujarat summit held in January.
After the incident Air India had issued notices to all domestic routes to discontinue the usage of boarding passes with Vibrant Gujarat Advertisement with immediate effect.
The model code of conduct (mcc) came into force on the 10th of March when the poll body announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha election.