EC bans physical campaigning in Bengal in view of Covid-19

The EC, however, lauded the voters in West Bengal’s 43 constituencies for setting an 'example' by following the protocols for sanitization and social distancing

With the second wave of the Covid-19 hitting West Bengal along with the rest of the country, the Election Commission on Thursday imposed a blanket ban on road-shows and bike rallies by the political parties in the state’s remaining 69 assembly constituencies, where voting would take place in the last two phases of polling.

The EC also decided that the local authorities would only grant permission to public meetings, which would not have more than 500 people in the audience and would be held in venues with adequate space for maintaining social distancing norms.

The poll-panel banned roadshows and bike, cycle and vehicle rallies after it “noted with anguish” that many political parties or candidates were still not adhering to the “prescribed safety norms during public gatherings” and thus making it difficult for the state or district election machineries to fully enforce the directions it had issued earlier to maintain Covid-19 safety protocols.

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The commission, however, lauded the voters in West Bengal’s 43 constituencies for setting an “example” by following the protocols for sanitization and social distancing in order to check spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during voting for the sixth phase of polling for the state assembly elections on Thursday. It claimed that all the 14480 polling stations in the 43 constituencies, which went to polls in the sixth phase, had strictly adhered to the Covid-19 safety protocols during voting on Thursday.

The EC had on April 16 last curtailed time for campaigning for the remaining phases of the assembly polls in West Bengal in view of the surge in cases of SARS-CoV-2 viral infection in the state as well as across the country. The commission barred campaigning between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m. for the constituencies going to polls in the last three phases of polling. 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 EC had on Wednesday ordered that the district authorities should take necessary action to deal with the violation of the guidelines it had issued in August 2020 to avoid surge in Covid-19 infection during voting as well as new instruction issued in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic. It had asked the district authorities to cancel permissions for campaigning by candidates and political parties if they had failed to adhere to the safety protocols.