Chennai/New Delhi:
The battle for the ballot just got bitter with the poll campaign getting personal.
Top leaders have indulged in an ugly war of words as campaigning for the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Kerala reaches its last leg.
The Election Commission (EC) has issued a notice to Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister MK Stalin for allegedly making personal attacks on arch-rival and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa.
"The Commission has issued a notice to Stalin for making personal attack on Ms Jayalalithaa in violation of the Model Code of Conduct," a senior official said.
The EC has asked the DMK leader to submit his reply by today evening.
The notice is bound to further intensify the already-brewing battle between the two main parties, the DMK and AIADMK, ahead of the assembly polls on April 13.
The AIADMK had, on April 8, filed a complaint with the EC against Stalin who had allegedly made some remarks about the marital status of Jayalalithaa.
Stalin's remark was "malicious and was beyond all limits of decency", the complaint said, which was filed a day after the poll body issued a notice to the AIADMK chief for allegedly making personal remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
AIADMK Rajya Sabha member P H Manoj Pandian, in a written complaint to Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer, said Stalin made "derogatory and defamatory remarks" against Jayalalithaa in Namakkal during a campaign for the assembly polls.
Quoting Stalin from a Tamil daily as saying that the AIADMK chief was not married and so was not interested in funding other women's weddings, Pandian said it was "no way connected with the public activities of the leader".
But it's not just Tamil Nadu that's witnessing personal barbs being thrown at each other. In neighbouring Kerala, chief minister VS Achuthanandan and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi were engaged in a bitter verbal duel.
Achuthanandan on Sunday called Rahul an "Amul baby" in response to the young Gandhi's jibe at the CPM stalwart on his age.
"Rahul Gandhi is an Amul baby. He has come to Kerala to campaign for Amul babies," Achuthanandan said in Palakkad while addressing election rallies.
(With PTI inputs)