The Election Commission on Tuesday issued an advisory to political parties and their star campaigners, asking them to exercise caution and restraint in their utterances during campaigning in Karnataka and not to vitiate the election atmosphere.
Taking serious note of the "plummeting level of campaign discourse" during electioneering, the poll panel referred to the instances of "inappropriate vocabulary and language" used during the ongoing campaign by persons, "in particular, by those invested with the statutory status of star campaigner".
"Such instances have occasioned various complaints, cross complaints and have also attracted negative media attention," the EC said in a statement.
Campaigning for the May 10 polls is hotting up with the Congress and the BJP being engaged in a war of words.