THE Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday (27) met the country’s health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and discussed the growing number of Covid-19 cases along with the vaccination status in five states that will go to polls early next year.
Asian News International cited sources as saying that the ECI and the health ministry will hold another meeting over the same in January.
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“In today’s meeting, ECI and Health Ministry discussed the rising number of cases across India, especially in the states going to assembly polls early next year as well as the vaccine scenario,” the sources told ANI.
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The five states that will go to polls in a few months include Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state; Uttarakhand; Goa; Punjab and Manipur.
Two more states – Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the home state of prime minister Narendra Modi, will go to polls later in the year.
Last week, the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh urged the ECI and the Modi government to postpone the elections as well as ban rallies and public meetings of the political parties in the wake of the rising number of Omicron infections.
A youth carries an elderly man as they wade through a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Wellampitiya on the outskirts of Colombo on November 30, 2025. The death toll from floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah has risen to at least 334 people across Sri Lanka, with nearly 400 still missing, the Disaster Management Centre said on November 30. Getty Images
A man carries his cat across a flooded road in Wellampitiya on the outskirts of Colombo on November 29, 2025. Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance on November 29 as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. Getty Images
