Before an election is announced, the Model Code of Conduct is not yet in force. Your messages still have to follow telecom rules: a registered sender, approved templates and consent where the rules ask for it. Once the Election Commission announces the schedule, its rules on certification and the 48-hour silence period come into play as well.
By Rohit Jadhav. Last reviewed 25 October 2026. This is operational guidance, not legal advice. Rules change, so confirm the current requirements for your election.
Most campaigns start months before the dates are out. Ticket aspirants meet workers, sitting members report on their work, and parties test their message. If you plan to use SMS or voice calls for that, pre-campaign messaging needs its own checklist. It sits between two sets of rules, and people tend to remember only one of them. This guide is part of our wider look at election campaign messaging rules. If you want help running the sending side, our election campaign services cover SMS and voice calls for candidates and parties. More guides are collected under Election Campaigns.
What counts as pre-campaign messaging?
Pre-campaign messaging is any message to voters, workers or supporters sent before the Election Commission of India announces the election schedule. It covers things like a ticket aspirant's introduction, an update on local work, an invitation to a party meeting or a request to join a volunteer group.
The word "pre-campaign" has no legal definition. It is just a handy label. What matters is the date. Before the announcement there is no Model Code of Conduct. After it, there is.
Is the Model Code of Conduct in force before the schedule is announced?
No. The Election Commission says the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately from the announcement of the schedule (see the Commission's schedule announcement of 16 March 2024, published by the Press Information Bureau, checked 25 October 2026). Before that announcement, there is no code to break.
That does not make the period a free-for-all. Three things still apply:
- Telecom rules on who may send, from which sender ID and with which template.
- Data and consent rules for the phone numbers you use.
- Ordinary law on defamation, hate speech and false statements, which does not wait for an election.
Which telecom rules apply to a political SMS or voice call?
Commercial messages in India must go out through a registered sender and registered content templates under TRAI's Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018. We covered the registration steps in our guide to DLT registration for political party sender IDs.
Here is the part that surprises people. The regulation defines a commercial communication as one that informs about or advertises goods, services or a business opportunity. It does not name political messages. So the text of the regulation alone does not tell you how a party's SMS is classified. In practice the telecom operators approve or reject templates. In September 2025 TRAI said publicly that it does not approve or reject individual SMS campaigns, and that operators do this under the regulations (as reported by MediaNama).
What this means for you: do the registration early. A template that an operator rejects two days before a rally is a bad time to find out how your content gets reviewed.
What should a pre-campaign checklist include?
A practical checklist looks like this:
- Register the sender (party or candidate) and the sender ID well before you need it.
- Get templates approved for the messages you expect to send, such as meeting invitations and work updates.
- Keep a record of where every phone number came from and whether the person agreed to hear from you.
- Write messages that state who is sending them and what they are for.
- Agree who inside the team approves wording, and keep the approved versions.
- Decide now how people can opt out, and how you will remove them.
The fourth point matters more than it sounds. A message that does not say who sent it looks like spam, and people report spam.
What changes the day the schedule is announced?
Three things change, and each deserves its own planning.
The Model Code of Conduct starts. Anything you send is now judged against it. Our overview of the code's messaging rules goes through the main points.
Pre-certification may apply. The Election Commission has asked parties and candidates to get political advertisements on electronic media pre-certified by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC). Its FAQ confirms this for social media. A March 2026 report from All India Radio says the Commission's order for the 2026 assembly polls also covered bulk SMS and voice messages (newsonair.gov.in). The Commission issues these orders election by election, so check the order for yours.
The silence period begins before polling. Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 restricts election matter in the 48 hours before the poll closes. The Commission has said this includes bulk SMS and voice messages. We explain it in the 48-hour silence period guide.
A worked example (hypothetical)
Take a ticket aspirant for a municipal ward, call them Mr Patil. This is an invented example, not a real client. Three months before the likely election he wants to invite 4,000 ward residents to a "report card" meeting.
He asks his volunteers for numbers. About 1,500 come from a residents' association WhatsApp group, 1,200 from a past meeting's sign-in sheet and 1,300 from a purchased list of unknown origin. A careful team would use the sign-in sheet first, because those people attended and gave their number for that purpose. It would hold the association numbers until someone confirms what members agreed to, and it would drop the purchased list altogether. The SMS goes out under a registered sender ID, names the sender and gives a way to stop receiving messages. He ends up with fewer recipients and a cleaner list, and a smaller chance of complaints reaching the operator.
Who in the team should own pre-campaign messaging?
One person should own it, and it should not be the person writing the speeches. Message content and message compliance are different jobs. The owner keeps the approved templates, the record of where each list came from and the opt-out list, and signs off before anything goes out. When the schedule is announced, that same person is the first call for the rules that start applying. Small teams often skip this step because everyone is busy, and then discover that three volunteers have each sent their own version of the same invitation.
Common mistakes in pre-campaign messaging
- Assuming nothing applies until the schedule is out. Telecom and data rules apply all year.
- Using a purchased or scraped number list. You cannot show where consent came from.
- Registering the sender at the last minute. Approvals take time, and rejections are common.
- Sending from a personal SIM. The regulations put a daily cap on messages from an ordinary number, so a big send from one will be stopped.
- Leaving out the sender's name. Recipients cannot tell who is asking for their attention.
- Reusing pre-announcement content after the code starts. Review old templates against the code before you send them again.
- Treating one election's order as permanent. Certification instructions are issued for each election.
Frequently asked questions
Can a ticket aspirant send bulk SMS before the party names its candidate?
Telecom rules still apply to the sender, whoever they are. The aspirant needs a registered sender and approved templates, and the numbers must be ones they can justify using. Party rules on campaigning before ticket distribution are separate and come from the party, not from the Election Commission.
Does the Model Code of Conduct apply to my messages before the election is announced?
No. By the Commission's own description, the code takes effect from the announcement of the schedule. Your messages before that date are not judged against the code, but telecom rules, data rules and general law all continue to apply.
Do I need MCMC pre-certification for a pre-campaign SMS?
Certification orders are issued for a particular election period, so a message sent well before the announcement is outside them. When in doubt, ask the District Election Officer's office or your party's legal cell, because the answer depends on the dates and on the order for your election.
Can I use the voter list to send SMS?
An electoral roll is not a phone-number database, so the numbers have to come from somewhere else. Whatever the source, you need to be able to show that people agreed to hear from you. We look at this in more detail in our guide to sending SMS to a voter list, and the compliance basics for election campaigns cover record-keeping.
How early should I register a sender ID and templates?
As early as you can. Operators review templates and may reject them, and political content is a case where wording gets scrutiny. Do not plan a launch around an approval you have not yet received.
Sources checked
All checked on 25 October 2026.
- Press Information Bureau: Announcement of schedule for general elections 2024 (16 March 2024) (code of conduct takes effect on announcement)
- Election Commission of India, FAQ on social media (pre-certification) (MCMC pre-certification for social media)
- Election Commission of India press note ECI/PN/38/2024 (2 April 2024) (Section 126 text)
- TRAI, consolidated Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (definition of commercial communication; the text names no political exemption)
- All India Radio News: EC mandates pre-certification of political ads (21 March 2026) (news report; check the order itself)
- MediaNama: TRAI on SMS template rejection (September 2025) (news report)
If you are planning messages for an upcoming election and want to talk through registration and timing, you can reach our team through the contact page.