EC to announce poll schedule for five states
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The Election Commission will announce the schedule for upcoming 2022 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand at 3.30 pm on Saturday.
In the run up to the announcement, the poll panel held a number of meetings with health ministry officials and other stakeholders in view of the rising Covid cases across the country. There has been steep jumps in numbers with 1.41 lakh cases reported by the ministry on Saturday.
India crossed the 55,000 and one-lakh milestone in the fresh surge back to back this week.
With experts suggesting it's unsafe to hold large gatherings, EC will increase the number of polling booths in each constituency and also reduce the number of voters further from the existing 1,200.
The EC will come out with a slew of measures in the five poll-bound states. The poll body had asked the states to maximise vaccination reach in view of the rising Omicron cases that are now 3,071 across the country.
After the West Bengal Assembly polls last year, the Calcutta High Court had observed that EC officials did nothing to prevent election rallies from becoming super-spreader events.
The Commission has recently increased the expenditure limit for candidates from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 95 lakh in Lok Sabha polls and from Rs 28 lakh to Rs 40 lakh for state assembly polls.
