Children’s photo with poll slogans costs Kirron Kher

Chandigarh, May 4 (IANS) Posting a picture of children on Twitter with slogans "Vote for Kirron Kher" and "Ab ki baar Modi sarkar" has led to trouble for the actor-turned-politician, who is seeking re-election from here.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, the Election Commission had issued a notice to her on Friday, asking her to file the reply within 24 hours.

The poll panel cited a January 2017 letter of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, asking the Election Commission to ensure that children are not involved in any form with election-related activities by either election officials or political parties.

The post was subsequently removed from Kher's Twitter account.

Kher is pitted against Congress' Pawan Kumar Bansal, a former Union Minister, and BJP rebel and AAP candidate Harmohan Dhawan, who had also been a Union Minister in Chandra Shekhar's short-lived government.

Kher, 63, had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2014 by defeating her closest rival Bansal by a margin of nearly 70,000 votes.

Hailing from Chandigarh itself, she, however, not only faces a tough challenge from the Congress but also from within the local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Chandigarh BJP President Sanjay Tandon was breathing down her neck as claimants for the BJP ticket. He was a ticket aspirant last time also but Kher managed to pip him at the post.

The nearly 6.2 lakh voters, including 40,000 new voters since 2014, of Chandigarh will decide its next MP on May 19 in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections.