Amid rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases across India, the Election Commission (EC) has raised serious concerns over the violation of COVID-19 guidelines by leaders of different political parties during election campaign in West Bengal and other states and warned that the EC will ban political rallies if they fail to comply to the COVID guidelines.
The poll panel write letter to all recognised political parties and said, “It is widely known that in the recent weeks, COVID cases are being reported in larger numbers. However, instances of election meetings/campaigns have come to the notice of the commission, where norms of social distancing, wearing of masks have been flouted in disregard to the commission’s guidelines.”
In its letter, the EC highlighted several instances of star campaigners and political leaders or candidates not observing COVID-19 protocols, “including non-wearing of masks themselves at stage or while campaigning”.
“By doing so, the political parties…