Panchayat elections should have been deferred: Ex-SEC

Lucknow: Over three crore voters will walk up to the polling booths on Thursday to cast their votes in the first phase of the three-tier panchayat elections in the state amid raging Covid surge with over 20,000 cases and 84 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours across Uttar Pradesh.

On the eve of polling, the State Election Commission directed all polling officers to ensure all Covid protocols are strictly followed at the polling booths, even though critics slammed the decision of going ahead with polls at a time when the second Covid wave is threatening to shatter previous records.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is himself down with Covid, and so is his predecessor Akhilesh Yadav. Nearly 20 IAS officers, including those in chief minister’s office are also infected and are undergoing treatment.

State law and justice minister Brijesh Pathak had recently warned against the fragile state of the burdened health system during the pandemic, while the high court had asked UP government to consider imposing lockdown to check the spiralling graph.

The state government employees had also petitioned State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar to reconsider holding panchayat elections amid raging crisis in vain.

Former state election commissioner, Satish Kumar Agarwal said that panchayat elections have been deferred in the past in normal times. Therefore, in these extarordinary times, there was no reason to hold them in the middle of the pandemic. “The entire machinery involved in combating the pandemic will be totally preoccupied with their constitutional responsibility of holding free and fair elections,” he said.

“The system is under tremendous pressure right now due to the pandemic. The SEC should take an independent and practical decision and postpone the polls,” said Agarwal.

“The elections were due in December 2020 and are already delayed and could have been postponed further. Two panchayat elections had been delayed in the past without any reason. So, why this hurry amid an unprecedented pandemic and a humanitarian crisis staring at us,” asked Agarwal.

Meanwhile, State Election Commissioer Manoj Kumar was incommunicado and repeated attempts to contact him proved futile.


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