Omicron: Indian court asks Modi govt to delay state polls

A COURT in India has requested the country’s Narendra Modi government to suspend political rallies and election campaigns and delay elections in states that are due for elections amid the growing number of Omicron infections.

Judges of the Allahabad High Court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which is also going to polls in a few months, on Thursday (23) said the number of people hit by Omicron is on the rise and a third wave of the coronavirus could not be ruled out.

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Besides Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with more than 220 million people, a number of other states including Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will also go to elections in 2022.

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Of these, the election in Uttar Pradesh is a key one since it is considered an important state politically where performance of political parties will be seen as a barometer for the general elections of 2024.

Modi has been making frequent trips to Uttar Pradesh to flag off projects ahead of the election to ensure that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returns to power there again after 2017. The prime minister’s own constituency Varanasi is also located in the same state from where he won in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

The BJP and other parties have started holding rallies and meetings in Uttar Pradesh where people flout pandemic protocols.

The judges said if possible, the elections that are expected to be held in February, be deferred by a couple of months.

“The court requests the honourable prime minister that looking at the situation of this frightening pandemic, to take strong steps and stop rallies, gatherings and cancel or postpone (the) upcoming election,” they said.

“Because only if there is life, we have our world,” they added.

Last year, political parties were slammed for not discouraging public gatherings at electoral rallies in populous states such as West Bengal which the prime minister also attended. A devastating second wave of the pandemic had wreaked havoc in the country around then, leaving several thousands dead.

India’s overall tally of Omicron infections has crossed 350 across 17 states, authorities said on Friday, although no deaths have been reported so far.

The Modi government was accused of mishandling the pandemic during the second wave last year which left the country’s healthcare in shambles.

However, the government raced to vaccinate its 944 million adults and has given at least one dose to 88 per cent of them.