The EC on directed political parties to get advertisements pre-certified.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Ahead of the Bihar Assembly election, the Election Commission of India (EC) on Tuesday (October 14, 2025) directed political parties to get advertisements pre-certified and asked candidates to inform the poll body about their “authentic” social media accounts while filing nominations.
The election will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, followed by counting of votes on November 14.
Read: Bihar Assembly Elections LIVE updates
In a statement on Tuesday, the EC said it has issued orders on October 9, requiring every registered, and national and State political party, and every contesting candidate to apply to the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) for pre-certification of all political advertisements on electronic media, including social media, before publication.
The statement said that MCMCs have been constituted at the district and State levels for pre-certification of political advertisements as per the prescribed guidelines and no political advertisements are to be released to any internet-based media or websites, including social media websites, by political parties or candidates without pre-certification from the respective MCMC.
MCMCs shall keep a strict vigil on suspected cases of paid news in the media and take suitable action.

The poll panel said that bulk SMS-es and audio messages during the 48-hour ‘silence period’, which starts before the conclusion of voting, is prohibited.
“Further, given the penetration of social media in the electoral landscape, candidates have also been instructed to share the details of their authentic social media accounts at the time of filing nomination,” it said.
The political parties should also submit a statement of expenditure incurred on campaigning through internet, including social media websites, to the EC within 75 days of the completion of the election. Such expenditure, among other things, shall include payments made to internet companies and websites for carrying advertisements and also campaign-related expenditure on development of content and operational expenditure incurred to maintain their social media accounts.
Published – October 14, 2025 08:42 pm IST