The Allahabad High Court on Thursday requested the Election Commission to postpone the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 by a month or two, reported news websites. The court also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the EC to immediately ban rallies and public meetings of political parties in the state amid the rising fears of the highly contagious Covid variant Omicron. “If rallies are not stopped, results will be worse than the second wave,” Justice Shekhar Yadav said. The court made the observations while hearing an unconnected bail petition.
The observation comes on the same day when PM Modi held a review meeting on the Covid-19 situation in the country. PM Modi appealed to the people to be ‘satark’ (alert) and ‘saavdhan’ (careful) in view of the new variant and stressed contact tracing, vaccination and ramping up of testing. Modi also directed officials to maintain strict vigil and alertness at all levels and to work closely with the states.
India has recorded 236 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across 16 states and Union Territories (UTs) so far, out of which 104 people have recovered or migrated, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.
“Jaan hain toh Jahaan hain (while there is life, there is hope,” observed Justice Shekhar Yadav as he requested the prime minister and the EC to consider postponing the UP election and banning political rallies.
“Election rallies of political parties should be banned to save the public from the third wave of Corona in the assembly elections to be held in UP. They should be asked to campaign through TV and newspapers. The EC should take strict steps to stop the election meetings and rallies of the parties. Also consider postponing the election, because only if there is life, the world is meaningful,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.
In a communication to the states and UTs on Tuesday, the Centre said the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is at least thrice more transmissible than its Delta variant and asked them to “activate” war rooms, keep analysing even small trends and surges and keep taking strict and prompt containment action at the district and local levels.
There have been demands that the government allow booster doses of vaccines to be administered to those already fully inoculated against Covid-19, as has been done by many countries.
