• Thursday, April 25, 2024

Coronavirus

India’s poll panel meets health secy over pandemic-time elections

Indian voters stand in queue to cast their ballot at a polling station in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. (Photo: BIJU BORO/AFP/Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

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.

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