Thrissur: Former minister and CPI leader V S Sunil Kumar, who is contesting as LDF candidate from Thrissur, deleted his photos with actor Tovino Thomas from his social media pages after the latter raised objection for using his name and pictures on election campaign materials.
Tovino is the ambassador for the Election Commission's Systematic Voter's Education and Electoral Participation Programme.
“My best wishes to all the Lok Sabha candidates. I wish to hereby convey that I’m the ambassador for Kerala for the Election Commission’s SVEEP (Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation) program, and so it is against the law to use my photo or a photo including me for any kind of election campaigning. In case somebody is using it, I wish to clarify that it is without my knowledge or consent. Wishing everyone a fair election experience,” wrote Tovino on his social media pages.
Sunil Kumar's picture with Tovino had triggered heated debates on Social media as it was seen as an alleged attempt to influence voters.
Responding to the row, Sunil Kumar said that he took the photo with the actor while visiting him at a film shooting location in Thrissur. “I was unaware of Tovino's association with the Election Commission. I immediately removed the photos when I came to know about it,” he said.
Tovino is from Irinjalakuda and is a voter of Thrissur parliamentary constituency.
Meanwhile, Kalamandalam Gopi's son Raghu Gurukripa took to Facebook alleging that a physician asked his father to support Suresh Gopi, the NDA candidate in Thrissur. Though the Kathakali maestro is a voter of Alathur constituency, the doctor told him that Suresh Gopi would reach his house seeking his blessings as part of the election campaign. When Kalamandalam Gopi opposed this, the doctor tried to tempt him by referring to his chances of winning Padma Bhushan, Raghu wrote.
“Don't you need a Padma Bhushan,” asked the doctor when Gopi refused to cooperate with the election campaign drama. In response, Gopi declared that he never wanted it, the post claimed.
However, when the post triggered heated discussions on social media, Raghu also removed the post.
