A day after the Allahabad High Court urged the Centre to put off the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and ban rallies and public meetings of political parties owing to rising cases of the Omicron, a high-level team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will visit the State on December 28 to take stock of the polls preparations and Covid-19 situation. The poll body will take a final call on holding elections and four other States after an assessment of the Covid-19 situation with the Government.
According to sources, a high-level team comprising Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey, along with other senior officers of the Commission will review the preparations for the assembly elections in meetings with state government officers on December 28, 29 and 30. The EC team will also hold a meeting with the chief secretary, the director general of police, and other top state government officers as well health department. The team will also meet all stakeholders including representatives of political parties to take their viewpoints.
Responding to a query, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra on Friday said an appropriate decision will be taken on the issue after his UP visit next week. "I will be visiting UP next week. An appropriate decision as required by the situation will be taken after we review it," CEC Chandra said. He was responding to a question whether it was possible to defer the polls in the backdrop of the Allahabad High Court observations to ban political rallies over the rising cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
A team of the EC headed by CEC Chandra is currently in Uttarakhand to take stock of the poll preparations and is scheduled to visit Uttar Pradesh next. The EC has earlier visited Punjab and Goa to review the poll preparedness amid the Omicron scare.
The chorus to postpone the upcoming assembly polls got louder after the Allahabad High Court has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the EC to immediately ban rallies and public meetings of political parties, and consider postponing the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election owing to rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The court requested the EC to possibly postpone the U.P. election scheduled to be held in February by one or two months. Citing news reports of increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths, the HC said the third wave “is at our doorstep”.
The High Court judge, while praising the PM’s vaccination drive, requested him, taking into consideration the “frightening situation”, to take tough steps and consider deferring or stopping the rallies, meetings and election. “Jaan hain toh jahan hain (if there is life, there is hope),” remarked the judge.
The Uttar Pradesh election in 2017 was conducted over seven phases between February 11 and March 9 while three other states polled in a single phase and Manipur had polled in two phases after the election schedule was announced on January 4, 2017.