E-Paper
Election Commission to hold meeting with political parties from Bihar today
Assembly elections in Bihar are scheduled to be held in October-November.
The Election Commission will be meeting political parties from Bihar this afternoon via video conferencing.
The development follows after a host of parties from the state, in a joint letter to the poll body, underlined the concern among the electorate and the parties that the Bihar “poll exercise does not become a super spreader event”. They highlighted that the coronavirus cases in the state saw an “alarming exponential surge”.
“It is safe to assume that there are many more infected people who are either asymptomatic or have not yet been tested in the state, making their public movement a risk for others around them. It is also projected that infections would cross a million in Bihar by the tentative election schedules in October-November,” the parties argued in the letter and urged upon the EC to review if polls can be held in such a situation.
On Thursday, the EC said it has decided not to notify the law ministry’s amendment to the Representation of People Act, 1951, that would have allowed those over the age of 65 to use postal ballots in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. The move was welcomed by political parties.
The commission cited “the field situation and logistics of operationalization” as the rationale behind its decision to not allow postal ballots.
The Bihar assembly lapses in November this year and chief election commissioner Sunil Arora had told Hindustan Times in an interview on June 27 that state elections will be held when they are due.
