WB Polls: EC Announces Restrictions, But No Clubbing
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-04-16 15:41:39
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The Election Commission has finally woken up to the fact
that the elections in West Bengal are a potential and huge threat to public
health. Since 4 phases still remain, the EC has banned all kinds of campaigning
after 7 pm to 10 am the next day on campaigning days and has also increased the
silence period before the poll day in each phase from 48 hours to 72 hours in
the last three phases on April 22, 26 and 29. The ban extends to rallies, public meetings, street plays, nukkad sabhas,
bike rallies or any kind of campaign that calls for assembly of people.
While this is a good move
by the EC, one still feels that it should think of clubbing the last three
phases. If it is not possible to prepone the phases to April 22, all three can
be postponed to April 29. The EC has said that it cannot do so since all
formalities like nominations are complete. But one feels that the EC does have
the power to change the dates. If not, the government must give it special
powers, for extraordinary situations like the surge in Covid cases demand
extraordinary solutions. It would be best if the last three phases were held on
April 29.
One feels that the EC is
being adamant because if it now clubs the last three phases, it will mean that
its original decision to hold the elections in eight phases spread over five
weeks will be considered wrong. But since the virus has spread ferociously
after its original decision, the EC should ideally explore the possibility of holding
the last three phases on a single day. That would bring relief to the people
and will be the best solution in these troubled times. But it seems that the EC
will go only thus far and no further.
