🏛️ Polity & GovernanceMAINS · GS2.7 · GS2.8

Model Code in force for five Assembly polls

The Election Commission triggers the Model Code of Conduct the moment it announces elections to five State/UT legislatures — and the Centre is bound too.

What happened

On 15 March 2026 the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for General Elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, alongside bye-elections in six States.
With the announcement, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force at once across those States and the Union Territory of Puducherry; notifications were issued and gazettes published for Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.
Crucially, the Code binds not only the contesting parties and candidates but the Central Government itself, for announcements or policy decisions touching these poll-bound States/UT.
The Commission issued directions for strict implementation: defacement of government, public and private property to be removed; misuse of official vehicles and accommodation for campaigning barred; advertisement at the public exchequer's cost stopped.
A complaint-handling machinery was activated — Call Centre number 1950, the C-Vigil citizen app on the ECINET platform, over 5,173 Flying Squads and more than 5,200 Static Surveillance Teams, with a standing instruction to attend to flagged violations within 100 minutes.
The SUVIDHA module on ECINET was switched on to allot public grounds (maidans) and helipads to parties on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Background & context

The Model Code of Conduct is the operational rulebook that governs the conduct of political parties, candidates and governments during the run-up to an election. It is administered by the Election Commission of India, the constitutional authority created by Article 324 of the Constitution and vested with the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to Parliament, the State legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice-President. The ECI was established on 25 January 1925 — a date now observed as National Voters' Day — and is presently a three-member body comprising the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners, who function as a multi-member commission deciding by majority where they differ.

The MCC has no single statute behind it. It grew out of practice: a voluntary code of conduct first evolved in Kerala for the 1960 Assembly election, then circulated by the ECI to parties and gradually expanded over successive general elections. Over the decades the Commission consolidated it into a structured document and — from the 1990s onward, under the Commission led by T.N. Seshan — enforced it with new seriousness. The current Code is organised into parts dealing with general conduct, meetings, processions, polling day, polling booths, observers, the party in power, and election manifestos. The portion that constrains the party in power is the heart of its constitutional logic: it tries to deny the incumbent government an unfair advantage from controlling the state's machinery, treasury and media reach during the campaign window.

The Code's life is time-bound. It comes into force from the date the Commission announces the election schedule and remains in operation until the completion of the election process — that is, until results are declared. The present trigger is the simultaneous announcement of five Assembly elections plus six sets of bye-elections, which is why the directions issued on 16 March 2026 emphasise that the restrictions now apply across all the named States and the UT, and to the Union Government for decisions affecting them.

For Prelims

Full meaning: the Model Code of Conduct is a set of norms — not a single defined "model" law — governing the conduct of parties, candidates and governments from poll announcement to result.
Administering authority: the Election Commission of India, enforcing the Code under its plenary powers in Article 324. The MCC has no separate enabling statute.
Legal character: non-statutory — binding by convention and by the Commission's authority, not by an Act of Parliament. The ECI has historically resisted proposals to give it statutory backing, arguing that a short, flexible code enforced quickly serves better than slow court-bound litigation.
When it operates: from the date of the schedule announcement (here, 15 March 2026) until the election process is complete.
Whom it binds: all parties and candidates, and the government in power — including the Central Government for policy decisions concerning the poll-going States/UT.
This round: general elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal + bye-elections in 6 States; notifications issued and gazettes published for Assam, Kerala, Puducherry.
Enforcement stack: Call Centre 1950; complaints to the District Election Officer / Returning Officer; C-Vigil app on ECINET; 5,173+ Flying Squads and 5,200+ Static Surveillance Teams; 100-minute action window for C-Vigil complaints.
SUVIDHA on ECINET: a single-window facility allotting maidans, grounds and helipads to parties on first-come-first-serve basis, to keep the campaign field level.
Key prohibitions issued: removal of defacement of government/public/private property; no misuse of official vehicles or official accommodation; no advertisement funded by the public exchequer; respect for the privacy of citizens (no picketing or demonstrations outside private residences); no use of any private land, building or wall without the owner's written consent.
Party-in-power constraints: ministers must not combine official tours with electioneering or use government machinery or personnel for campaign work; parties must inform police in advance of meetings and processions and obtain the necessary permissions.

What it is NOT: The MCC is not a law — no MCC "Act" exists, and a violation is not in itself a criminal offence unless it also breaches the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Indian Penal Code provisions on election offences, or other electoral law. It is not derived from a special article reserved for it; it rests on the general powers of Article 324. It does not apply only to the Opposition or only to State governments — its sharpest edge is on the ruling party, the Centre included. It is not permanent — it lapses when the result is declared. And it must not be confused with the statutory campaign machinery of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (which does carry penalties), or with the separate "expenditure ceiling" rules: the MCC is the conduct layer that sits above them.

The full set (for "how many / match the pairs"): The ECI's election-integrity toolkit this cycle runs across several named instruments — C-Vigil (citizen video-complaint app, 100-minute resolution), SUVIDHA (public-venue and permissions allotment), ECINET (the unified ECI digital platform hosting these modules), the 1950 voter helpline, and the field arms — Flying Squads (mobile complaint teams) and Static Surveillance Teams (fixed checkpoints monitoring cash, liquor and inducement movement). Distinguish these from voter-facing tools such as the Voter Helpline app and cVIGIL's complainant-anonymity feature.

For UPSC: The MCC is a non-statutory ECI code enforced under Article 324, in force from the poll announcement to the declaration of results; its defining feature is that it binds the ruling party including the Union Government, and a breach is actionable only where it also violates an actual electoral law.

Why it matters

The Code answers a structural problem of representative democracy: the party that governs also controls the instruments — the treasury, official transport, public advertising, the bureaucracy, even broadcast reach — that could be turned into a campaign machine. Left unchecked, an incumbent could announce populist schemes, transfer inconvenient officials, or saturate public media in the weeks before polling, hollowing out the fairness of the vote. By freezing such advantages the moment the schedule is announced, the MCC tries to deliver a level field without waiting for a court. Its strength is speed: a C-Vigil complaint geo-tagged by a citizen can be triaged and acted on within 100 minutes, where an election petition under the Representation of the People Act might take years. Its weakness — and a recurring debate in governance papers — is precisely its non-statutory character: critics argue it lacks teeth, while the Commission counters that statutory status would slow enforcement to the pace of litigation and blunt the very advantage that makes the Code work. That tension between convention-based agility and statutory enforceability is the examinable fault-line.

For Mains

Anchor

A direct prompt on the Model Code of Conduct or on the powers of the Election Commission can be answered around this episode: what the MCC is, the Article 324 source of its authority, and why it binds the party in power.

Position

It records the government's and the Commission's stated stance — that the Centre too is bound for decisions affecting poll-bound States — useful to show the constitutional convention being applied in practice rather than in theory.

Substantiation

The enforcement figures (5,173+ Flying Squads, 5,200+ Static Surveillance Teams, the 100-minute C-Vigil window, the 1950 helpline) supply concrete, datable evidence of how free-and-fair elections are operationalised — far stronger than a generic claim that the ECI "ensures fairness."

Problematisation

The Code's non-statutory standing frames the standing debate on whether the MCC should be given legislative backing — a ready hook for questions on electoral reform and the limits of the ECI's authority.

Exemplification

C-Vigil, SUVIDHA and ECINET are deployable examples of e-governance and technology improving the integrity and transparency of the electoral process.

Deploys into: powers and functioning of the Election Commission (Art. 324); conduct of free and fair elections; the Representation of the People Act framework; e-governance and transparency in the electoral process; the convention-vs-statute debate on the MCC.

Election Commission of India · 2026-03-16 · PRID 2240566 · PIB source ↗