On Tuesday, April 27, Election Commission released circular regarding ban on victory procession in the General Assembly elections of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
Commission also laid down the broad guidelines to conduct General Election/ Bye Election during COVID-19 on 21st August 2020 after receiving views/ suggestions of National/ State Political Parties. The Commission has further considered the views/ suggestions received from various Chief Electoral Officers of States/ UTs on election campaign and public meetings.
Election Commission has also fixed counting of votes for General Election to Legislative Assemblies of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry along with by-polls in various states on May 2, 2021.
In view of the surge in COVID-19 cases throughout in the country, the commission has decided to make more stringent provision to be followed during the process of counting, in addition to exiting Broad Guidelines dated 21st August, 2020, EC has directed that there should be “no victory procession” after the counting on May 2, 2021 shall be permissible.
Not more than two persons shall be allowed to accompany the winning candidate to receive the certificate of election from the Returning Officer concerned.
Yesterday, Madras High Court also slammed Election Commission for not stopping political parties from conducting election rallies and said that the Election Commission is responsible for the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last 24 hours, India reported 3,23,144 new COVID-19 cases and 2,51,827 patients got discharge, while 2,771 people died of this deadly virus. Total active cases in India is now around 28.82 lakhs. The total death toll in India reached to 1,97,894.
