EC bans meetings, rallies in West Bengal between 7 pm and 10 am amid Covid-19 surge

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday curtailed time for campaigning for the remaining phases of the assembly polls in West Bengal in view of the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.

The EC barred campaigning between 7 pm and 10 am for the constituencies, which would go to polls on April 22, April 26 and April 29 next. The poll-panel also extended the campaign silence period from 48 hours to 72 hours for the last three phases of polling in the state.

The commissi asked the “star campaigners” of all the political parties to personally set example, by urging people attending rallies and public meetings to wear masks, use sanitizers and monaintain social distancing. It wrote to the presidents and general secretaries of all political parties, stressing that it would henceforth be the responsibility of the organizers of the public meetings and the rallies to provide mask and sanitizer to everyone attending the events in the poll-bound constituencies of the state.

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The poll-panel, however, did not raise the limit of expenditures of the candidates, although the organizers of the public meetings would have to pay for the masks and sanitizers to be arranged for the people attending such events.

The EC ordered that all candidates and the political parties should ensure “absolute adherence” to the guidelines it had issued on August 21 last year for conducting polls during a pandemic. It warned that violation of the guidelines would be sternly dealt with and action, including criminal proceedings, would be taken as per extant legal framework.

The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has spread across the country, even as the EC is yet to conduct polling in 159 assembly constituencies in West Bengal.

The commission already conducted polling in 135 of the 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal in four phases on March 27, April 1, April 6, April 10 last, while 45 will go to polls on Saturday. It also completed polling for the assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry by April 6. The votes will be counted in all the four states as well as the Union Territory of Puducherry on May 2.

The Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, Aariz Aftab, had a meeting with the representatives of all political parties in Kolkata on Friday and conveyed to them the EC’s request to strictly adhere to the guidelines introduced by it to prevent polls from contributing to the surge in the Covid-19 infection.

With 6769 new cases being reported in West Bengal during the past 24 hours, the cumulative number of the Covid-19 infected people in the State rose to 636885 with 36981 still battling with the virus, according to the data released by the Union Government early on Friday.

The EC stated that the District Election Officers and Returning Officers should take strict measures to enforce Covid-19 prevention guidelines during the campaign. They should cancel public meetings, rallies and other such events, if any violations were observed, in addition to invoking penal sections.