Under sections 126, 126A and 135C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, all election-related activities carried out or likely to be done or intended to influence the results of the election – such as holding public meetings, giving speeches, etc. – are prohibited during the silence period. Violation is punishable with imprisonment of up to six months, a fine or both.If candidates or parties are found campaigning from their official handles, the candidate will first receive a warning. If the offense is serious then they will be barred from campaigning. However, it failed to stop parties from using their IT cells or fan accounts to trend videos with Tamil songs and hashtags. In some cases, some creators created independent reels using the voices of the candidates to solicit votes.ECI TN Additional Chief Electoral Officer V Sridhar said the agency is monitoring all the official handles of candidates and parties. “Monitoring private and individual handles is a job. In such cases, we take action if we get complaints. We have already written to social media platforms to remove the content. We will release these details after the polls, as officials are busy conducting the elections,” he said.Officials said the EC has an IT team that monitors videos, but it takes at least a day for them to report to the web platform’s nodal officer and arrange for them to be removed, thereby reducing the impact of curbing content.