The Election Commission has sought clarifications from CPN (Maoist Centre) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress Central Committee member Arzu Deuba Rana for violating election code of conduct.

Dahal and Rana allegedly threatened the voters in their addresses during the election- targeted mass meetings.

According to officials at the commission, both Dahal and Rana have been asked to furnish their clarifications within 24 hours after receiving the letter.

"On Tuesday the Election Commission decided to seek clarifications from Dahal and Rana after receiving complaints against them," said Yagya Bhattarai, chief of the Legal Department of the Election Commission. "We will dispatch the letters today (Wednesday)."

According to the officials, in the letter it has asked Dahal to explain the intention of his statement where he said the country will fall in crisis if people from Bharatpur metropolis didn't cast votes for his party's symbol. The election body has also asked whether his statement affects the voting rights of the people.

Dahal, a former prime minister, while addressing an election campaign in Bharatpur Metropolitan City on Thursday, said that the country would fall in crisis if people didn't vote for Renu Dahal, his daughter who is a mayoral candidate from the Maoist Centre. She is a common candidate of the five ruling parties. As Jagannath Poudel, a “rebel” candidate of the Nepali Congress has filed his candidacy as an independent, there is a challenge for Renu to win again.

Bharatpur also is a electoral constituency of Dahal who had won as a member of the House of Representatives from there in 2017.

Similarly, Rana, who is also the wife of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, had said the government will not send budgets in the local governments where the candidates from her parties are defeated. While addressing an election mass meeting in Dadeldhura on Thursday she said, “Where there are no mayors of the Congress, why would we send money?” she said. “So, keeping this in mind, don't vote for karuwa [a Nepali pitcher with a spout], saruwa and haruwa [loser] parties.”

She asked people not to vote for the candidates fielded by Karna Bahadur Malla, the Dadeldhura district president of Nepali Congress, who was expelled from the party recently for backing candidates of a fringe party named Nepali Congress (BP) in an alliance with the CPN-UML. The party’s election symbol is Karuwa.

The commission has asked her to clarify whether her statement was constitutional.

The commission can fine anyone found violating the code of conduct upto Rs 100,000.