New Delhi: The chairman of All India Bar Association (AIBA) on Friday wrote a letter to Election Commission of India (ECI) to delink elections to Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from those of other four states – Punjab, Goa, Manipur, and Uttarakhand.
As Omicron hits India with an unprecedented speed, the call for delaying or postponing the upcoming assembly election in five states has accelerated but political parties and even the poll body is against delaying the polls.
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Dr. Adish C. Aggarwala, senior advocate and chairman of AIBA and National Citizens Committee ,in his written letter urged the poll body to hold Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh separately.
In the written letter, Dr Adish highlighted the devastation caused by the Covid second wave which was primarily due to public negligence during the process of Assembly elections to 4 states, including one Union Territory. He further urged the EC to to ban in-person rallies, roadshows and requested for punitive action against violators.
Explaining the rationale behind delinking the UP assembly election, the letter said the tenure of Uttar Pradesh Assembly will end 51 days after the other states. The terms of Goa Legislative Assembly expires on 15 March; Manipur 19 March; Punjab 23 March; Uttarakhand 23 March while Uttar Pradesh Assembly runs till 14 May. Therefore, it is evident that there is a reasonable time gap of clear 51 days between the expiration of UP Assembly and other State Legislative Assemblies. Besides, the population of Uttar Pradesh is nearly four times that of these four states put together.
Experts warn of millions of cases
He further added that two reputed scientists Manindra Agrawal of IIT-Kanpur and M Vidyasagar of IIT-Hyderabad, co-founders of the Sutra model, are of the opinion that in the “worst-case scenario”, the daily new Covid-19 cases might be in a range of 1.5-1.8 million in February. That may happen if the new Omicron variant completely evades immunity communities acquired either naturally or through vaccination.
Underscoring the huge population of UP, the letter said that the electorate size of Uttar Pradesh alone is more than 5 times of all the remaining 4 states taken together, scheduling multiple phase election makes it an intelligent move in Uttar Pradesh.
Also, conducting polls in the four smaller states before the UP polls would leave a vast contingents of paramilitary forces at the disposal of the Election Commission of India for a larger state like Uttar Pradesh. The constitutional body then can concentrate on ensuring free and fair polls in the biggest state in India by deploying and moving paramilitary companies to areas going to polls.
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