New Delhi: The Election Commission of India will convene a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on Monday.
The meeting, in which Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will take part, will have a discussion on the prevailing COVID-19 situation for upcoming Assembly elections in five states, news agency ANI reported.
ALSO READ | Goa Election 2022: Only Congress Has Capacity To Defeat BJP, Says Chidambaram. Slams TMC, AAP
The commission is likely to seek updates from Bhushan on the COVID-19 situation and the emergence of Omicron, the new coronavirus variant, news agency PTI reported sources as saying.
The terms of Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Manipur legislative Assemblies are set to end on different dates in March next year while the Assembly's term in Uttar Pradesh will end in May.
The Election Commission is expected to announce election dates next month, PTI reported.
As per the agency, the commission may also seek suggestions from Union Health Secretary RajeshBhushan on improving its COVID-19 protocol for poll campaigning, polling days, and the dates of counting.
EC Team To Visit Uttar Pradesh
This comes after Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said that his team will visit Uttar Pradesh to review the situation and make a decision about the assembly elections.
“Next week we will go to Uttar Pradesh and review the situation there and then take an appropriate decision,” Sushil Chandra had said at a press conference on Friday, as quoted by ANI.
The statement was in response to a query about Allahabad High Court calling upon the Election Commission of India to postpone the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh for one or two months.
Amid rising cases of new COVID variant Omicron, the Allahabad HC had urged the Commission to postpone the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh for one or two months.
“If rallies are not stopped, results will be worse than the second wave,” Justice Shekhar Yadav said, adding that, “Jaan hai toh Jahaan hai (if there is life, we have the world).”
The court also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the EC to immediately ban rallies and public meetings of political parties in the state.
Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur, and Uttarakhand are slated to undergo assembly elections early next year amid the looming threat of third COVID wave due to the Omicron variant.
The commission has already visited Punjab, Goa, and Uttarakhand as part of its pre-poll stock-taking exercise.
(With Agency Inputs)