Aug. 20 :     Shovelling fuel into the raging controversy over some of its pre-poll restrictions, the Election Commission today barred political parties from advertising on television and radio and imposed a month-long ban on opinion polls. The decisions coincided with calls from the ruling BJP for legally circumscribing the commission?s powers. Already unhappy with the bar on screening a film on Kargil and the denial of permission to the Prime Minister to take reporters on his campaign tours, the party said the commission?s functions should be more clearly defined under law so that its decisions can be challenged in court. In Mumbai, information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan suggested that an all-party meeting be called after the elections to debate the issue. The Constitution now defines the role of the commission in general terms, only saying that it is responsible for ensuring ?free and fair? elections. The commission, however, justified the decisions announced today as part of its efforts to create a ?level playing field?. Arguing that only a few big parties can afford to advertise on television, the commission said: ?In this process, in a poor country like India, democracy will be totally disturbed by money power.? Even though the restrictions unveiled today are a reiteration of the orders issued by the commission in the 1998 elections, the ban on television advertisements appeared to have taken political parties as well as the electronic media and spin doctors by surprise. Many of the campaign flicks ? with durations varying between 2 minutes and 10 seconds ? have already been made. Amid a frenzy of lobbying by channel executives with the big political parties, negotiations had started with sponsors to buy slots in programmes with a high viewership. Electronic media sources said banning ads is a self-defeating step since it will only encourage the government to use the official medium, Doordarshan, to project its viewpoint through news and current affairs programmes. The BJP, planning saturation media bombing, reacted with anger. Party spokesman Arun Jaitley said: ?The Election Commission is clearly overstepping its brief. What is there now to prevent them from saying there should not be any kind of ads in the print medium? Any kind of gag is totally unacceptable.? The Congress, which had decided to unleash its media campaign in phases, was restrained. Its spokesman, Kapil Sibal said: ?The decision is perfectly fine with us. The Election Commission has all the authority to take such decisions in the interest of a level playing field. Smaller parties would have been hurt if television advertising was allowed.? Advertising sources estimate the size of the campaign ad pie at about Rs 40 crore. They suggest the decision will cost even a regional channel like Eenadu about Rs 1.5 crore in ad revenue. Richa Sharma, corporate communications manager with Zee TV, said: ?In elections, every party should get an opportunity to propagate its views. We will incur a financial loss, but that is not what we?re worried about.? The ban on electronic media campaigns was clamped last year after consulting a wide range of people. ?The commission has gone into the question of advertising on electronic media in detail and sees no reason to review the policy followed in the last elections,? the statement issued today said. The poll panel recalled that in 1998, it had introduced a ?time voucher? scheme for all recognised parties on Doordarshan and AIR. ?The commission provided extensive time on the electronic media of the public broadcasting system.... This provided indirect state funds to parties which could not be misused,? it said, adding the decision was then welcomed by all parties. This facility continues. In another order, also a repeat of last year, the commission has barred the media from circulating opinion polls for one month from September 3 till October 3, when voting ends. The poll panel said the media can conduct exit polls but the results can not be made public till the elections are over. The commission added that pollsters would have to indicate the sample size of the electorate and the geographical area covered by the surveys. They would also have to spell out the methodology followed, the likely margin of error and the credentials of the organisation involved in the conduct and analysis of the poll.