The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday allowed small physical rallies of up to 500 people from January 28 for phase 1 seats and from February 1 for phase 2 seats, given the high speed of Covid-19 vaccinations carried out in Uttar Pradesh in the last two weeks and high vaccine coverage in Goa and Uttarakhand.
These three states will get the leeway in public meeting norms for now as Uttar Pradesh to vote in Phase 1 and 2, while Uttarakhand and Goa to vote in Phase 2. According to a source, the ECI was appraised that in the last two weeks, Uttar Pradesh has seen a record number of 3.4 crore vaccinations against coronavirus, and just in the last seven days, the state saw the highest ever weekly figure of 1.87 crore jabs. The fully-vaccinated coverage among adults has crossed 65 per cent in UP as of date, while it was just about 50 per cent at the start of the month.
The source said that rising vaccination numbers was a factor and the ECI expects vaccination coverage to further improve over the next one week in Uttar Pradesh, especially western UP which goes to polls in the first two phases. Political leaders in UP have welcomed the ECI’s decision. A senior BJP leader from UP told News18, “The severity of Omicron variant is much lesser with extremely low hospitalisation figures too. A majority of patients in Uttar Pradesh are recovering in home isolation.”
The poll body has also allowed video vans for publicity with usual Covid-19 restrictions at designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 viewers in all poll-bound states, which will be an added relief to political parties. Incidentally, the BJP flagged off its video vans in Uttar Pradesh to all districts on Saturday from Lucknow in which a short film on the Yogi Adityanath-led government’s achievements will be shown to people.
Uttarakhand and Goa have already fully-vaccinated coverage at over 85 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively. Punjab also hit its highest-ever weekly figure of 18.3 lakh jabs in the last seven days and 32 lakh total Covid jabs given over last two weeks but the total full-vaccinated coverage is still below the national average at 54 per cent. An official said that since Punjab will vote in phase 3 on February 20 so no relaxation in public meeting norms has been given there yet and a call on this will be taken later.
A source said the EC and State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) teams will keep a close eye on the small public meetings allowed from January 28 and will take strict action as per norms if the limit of 500 persons is flouted.
The ECI has, meanwhile, enhanced the limit of door-to-door campaign and instead of five persons, now ten persons, excluding security personnel, will be allowed for door-to door-campaigns by parties. This was after political parties complained that five persons is too less in a door-to-door campaign by their senior leaders.
The vaccination speed remains slow in poll-bound Manipur with full-vaccinated coverage at below 50 per cent but the state is only voting in Phase 5 and 6, so no relaxation in public meetings has been offered there.
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