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With India reporting over 350 Omicron cases as of Friday, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider postponing the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections by at least a month or two. The High Court has further requested to delay the electoral process to curb the super spread of the covid-19 variant, citing the deadly second wave that saw a gathering of hundred people due to election rallies.
Uttar Pradesh is one among seven other states that have their Assembly elections due in early 2022.
Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to enter the polls from January 2022 to March 2022 to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The term of the current elected assembly will expire on May 14, 2022. The EC is expected to issue a notification on the final dates by the third week of January.
The key contestants of the UP polls are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP). The SP and Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have reached a seat-sharing agreement.
Earlier, ECI had sought details from the state government about the steps taken to curb the spread of Omicron. In a letter to the state’s Chief Secretary, the Central Election Commission (CEC) had urged the government to furnish details of the number of covid shots administered to the public along with the confirmed cases of covid. It also asked the state health department to reveal the measures taken to prevent the spread of Omicron ahead of the Assembly elections.
Modi’s political campaign in UP ahead of the polls
Uttar Pradesh has been witnessing the mass gathering for the past couple of weeks due to several development programmes being inaugurated across the state.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stones of 27 development projects worth Rs 2,095 crore in his Varanasi parliamentary constituency. It was Modi’s second visit to the place in less than 10 days.
On December 13, Modi visited Varanasi to inaugurate his dream project, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, during his two-day visit. During Modi’s visit, Varanasi was decked up with massive murals depicting the city's culture, art and history of the city.
In a tweet, Modi had urged people to join the programme on the “landmark day”.
He had also attended the conclave of chief ministers the next day.
On Tuesday, Modi addressed a rally in Prayagraj, spearheading the election campaign.
Modi was participating in what the government called a "one of its kind programme", that was attended by lakhs of women.
Covid cases in UP
As of Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh reported 2 cases of the Omicron virus. However, a report by Hindustan Times stated that Uttar Pradesh is one among eight states to report an R-value of 1 and above indicating that Covid is spreading faster here.
On the same day, UP’s active Covid rose to 216 and seven cities accounted for 148 of these cases, according to data from the state health department.
However, in 2022, six other states will contest the Assembly elections.
1. Punjab
With a lot of controversies around cases of sacrilege, polls in Punjab are due in the first quarter of 2022. With a recent blast in a Ludhiana High Court and back-to-back incidents of sacrilege being reported across the state, Punjab is likely to witness a tight battle between the BJP, Congress and Aam Admi Party (AAP).
With political campaigns in full swing for the 117 seats, Punjab has not yet reported any case of the Omicron variant. Moreover, the weekly tally of the covid cases also dropped over 10 per cent in the past four weeks as infection plunged in the state.
2. Uttarakhand
The state has seen the ruling BJP replace two chief ministers in a short span along with Congress leadership reportedly tied in a feud. Polls in the state are due in early 2022.
As of Thursday, the state has reported only one case of Omicron.
3. Goa
The tiny state is likely to witness heated elections in the first quarter of 2022, with parties fighting for the 40 seats. The Trinamool Congress is trying hard to expand its hold over the state.
Goa has so far reported zero Omicron cases, however, Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 54 and reached 1,79,898 on Thursday, while no fresh death due to the infection was reported in the state, a health department official said.
4. Himachal Pradesh
The state is scheduled to enter the poll on October 30 with results due on November 2. The BJP-ruled state will see a heated contest for its 68 Assembly seats.
At least 23 students of a school in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday and the state logs around 682 cases between December 9and December 22. The state has not yet reported any Omicron cases.
5. Gujarat
Slated to enter the polls in late 2022, Gujarat will see a strong fight between Congress and BJP with AAP making an inroad to the state. Patels, or Patidars, considered the state’s most influential community, have a stronghold on 70 to 90 assembly seats out of the total 182.
With nine new Omicron cases reported on Wednesday, the state’s totally tally has reached 23. The Omicron cases presence has been recorded in Jamnagar, Gandhinagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Mehsana, Anand and Vadodara. The state also recorded 91 new covid-19 cases and two deaths the same day, taking the active cases to 637.
6. Mizoram
Polls are due in the first quarter of 2022 for the 60 Assembly seats. Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U), an National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally, has announced that it will contest the Manipur assembly polls the next year.
The state has reported zero cases of Omicron. However, on Monday the state reported 33 new coronavirus cases, the lowest single-day spike in nearly eight months, a health department official said, according to reports.
Election campaign leading to deadly second wave
On April 26, the Madras High Court heavily came down on the ECI for “not stopping political parties” from violating covid-19 norms during political rallies in four poll-bound states—Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The Madras High Court said that murder charges should probably be pressed against the constitutional body for being “the only institution responsible for the situation that we are in today”.
The allegations came days after the Calcutta High Court censured the EC for their lack of work to ensure Covid-19 guidelines are followed during the political rally.
The unpreparedness of the state during the deadly second wave, which witnessed scarcity of resources and loss of thousands of lives, led people to attack Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for paying too much attention to West Bengal polls rather than handling the covid situation in the country.
Modi reviews Omicron situation
In wake of Omicron cases spiking across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a high-level meeting to review the Covid-19 situation in the country. The meeting came amid growing concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with cases currently crossing the 300-mark. The country has reported 6,650 new cases of Covid-19 and 374 deaths in 24 hours, the government said on Friday.
(with inputs from PTI)
