Calcutta, June 3: The Election Commission has asked the chief electoral officer to lodge criminal complaints against parties and television channels that flouted the deadline on campaigning before the Lok Sabha polls.

Campaigning should come to an end 48 hours before the close of polling. Chief electoral officer Basudeb Banerjee said the poll panel was flooded with complaints saying “election campaigns were beamed on television even the day before the elections”.

A letter to Banerjee from the commission refers to Supreme Court guidelines on political advertisement and says that rules “were blatantly violated”.