July 17, 2026

WB Polls: EC Announces Restrictions, But No Clubbing

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-04-16 15:41:39

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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.