India’s Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday banned all electoral victory rallies in the country.
The move comes a day after a higher court held the constitutional body responsible for the ferocious second wave of Covid-19 and threatened to book top poll officials for murdering innocent citizens.
The results for assembly elections in five Indian states — West Bengal in the east, Assam in the northeast, and Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in the south — are due on May 2.
“Not more than two persons shall be allowed to accompany the winning candidate or his/her authorized representative may receive the certificate of election from the Returning Officer concerned,” the Election Commission said in a notification.
The move comes a day after the poll panel got a rap on the knuckles from the Madras High Court for failing to enforce Covid safety protocols during electoral campaigns for the assembly elections in the five states.
“Your institution is singularly responsible for the second wave of Covid-19. Your officers should be booked on murder charges probably,” the court told the Election Commission on Monday.
“You have failed to enforce Covid safety rules like masks, sanitizers and distancing during campaigning despite court orders. Were you on another planet when the election rallies were held,” a two-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee said.
The court also threatened to halt the counting of votes on May 2 “if a blueprint is not in place by then”.
The court’s rebuke came on a day when India recorded a whopping 3.52 lakh new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours amid an acute shortage of oxygen in hospitals across the country.
