Election Commission bans victory processions throughout and after counting of votes on May 2

The Election Commission on Tuesday banned all victory processions throughout and after the counting of votes on May 2 in view of rising Covid-19 instances.
This comes a day after the Madras High Court had requested the ballot physique to organize a blueprint of how Covid protocols could be adopted on the day of counting. The HC had pulled up the ballot physique on Monday for “not stopping political parties” from violating Covid protocols throughout their marketing campaign rallies for Assembly polls in 4 states and an Union Territory over the past month.

Remarking that the panel has been “the most irresponsible over the last few months in not stopping political parties from wanton abuse of the Covid-19 protocol”, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy mentioned: “You should be put up on murder charges probably.”

A scrutiny of the EC’s bulletins ranging from February 26, when it declared the schedule for 5 Assembly elections, to April 22, when it put stringent curbs on campaigning in West Bengal, reveals that the fierce second Covid surge registered as hardly a blip on its radar.
Ironically, its ban on roadshows, automobile rallies, and public conferences of over 500 individuals in West Bengal got here as late as April 22 and an hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his 4 rallies scheduled there the subsequent day.