In a major setback to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Election Commission of India on Tuesday served notices on him for making certain remarks during his election meetings at Rayadurgam and Tirupati in violation of the model code of conduct.

EC reacted strongly to the complaint lodged by the YSR Congress party that Kiran Kumar Reddy had asked the Congress supporters to cast at least 10 votes each to ensure the victory of the Congress party in the by-elections. The EC authorities went through the video clippings of the Chief Minister’s election speeches and came to the conclusion that he had in deed violated the code of conduct. The EC asked the Chief Minister to give an explanation to his comments by May 31.

Sources, however, said the Chief Minister has landed in trouble because of his poor language skills in Telugu.

“He might have called upon the Congress workers to see that each of them should get at least 10 votes polled in favour of the Congress. He might not have meant that each of them should vote 10 votes. His lack of knowledge in Telugu led to this problem,” sources said.