The Election Commission of India asked political parties in Karnataka to "exercise caution and restraint in their utterances" while taking "serious" note of "plummeting level of campaign discourse" ahead of the May 10 Assembly election.
In an advisory to political parties and their star campaigners, the poll watchdog asked them not to vitiate the election atmosphere.
In a statement, the EC referred to instances of "inappropriate vocabulary and language" used during the ongoing campaign by persons, "in particular, by those invested with the statutory status of star campaigner".
"Such instances have occasioned various complaints, cross complaints and have also attracted negative media attention," the EC said.
The development comes amid several instances of name calling and abuses by rival parties in the past week.
Last week, BJP urged the poll panel to bar Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge from campaigning for his remark comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a "poisonous snake". The party also asked for an FIR to be registered against the Congress president.
"PM Modi is like a 'poisonous snake'. You may be wondering whether think it’s poison or not. But if you lick it, you’re dead," Kharge had said while campaigning in Kalaburagi.
However, amid severe criticism from BJP, Kharge expressed regret while saying his remarks were not for PM Modi and he meant BJP's ideology was "like a snake".
A day later, senior BJP leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal called former Congress president Sonia Gandhi a "vishkanya" and an "agent of Pakistan and China".
"If Kharge compares Modi to a venomous snake, is their leader Sonia Gandhi a vishkanya? Sonia Gandhi is an agent of China and Pakistan," Yatnal had said.
Earlier this week, Congress leader Priyank Kharge, the son of party president Mallikarjun Kharge, called PM Modi a 'nalayak'. Congress, however, said he never made such comments.
On the other hand, Congress has sought a ban by EC on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for trying to create an "atmosphere of communal disharmony" in Karnataka.
Congress cited Amit Shah's recent speech in Vijayapura where the minister said that "if people voted for the Congress party in the elections, it would trigger communal violence in the state".