Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, October 21
Even as election fever is scaling up in Bihar, political parties are in dilemma. With strong immune systems, they are forced to ignore the deadly Coronavirus for votes.
While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been alerting people time and again to remain cautious from the virus that had shattered the world, political parties in Bihar were forced to give the guidelines issued by the Election Commission on October 9 under the cold carpet.
Following the lapses, extra security cover had been thrown open for the prominent leaders coming to Bihar for the election campaign. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is starting his election campaign on October 23 and strict instructions have been issued to the security agencies in Bihar not to allow any local leader on PM choppers.
Besides social distancing on the stage, no leader without masks would be allowed to share the stage with Modi. All state leaders would have to pass through strict thermal screening before being allowed to come close to the PM’s chair.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath is campaigning in Bihar for the last two days. The local BJP leaders have been asked not to share the chopper of the visiting chief minister as a precautionary measure.
Three senior BJP leaders of Bihar have reported sick and confined themselves to their residences since Tuesday. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had suddenly developed high fever late Monday night and on advice of the doctors, an antigen test was done.
Modi cancelled all engagements from Tuesday, including his public meetings at Banka and Munger, where his road-show was planned.
Health Minister Mangal Pandey too reported sick and cancelled his tour programmes since yesterday. Chief Whip of BJP Arun Kumar Sinha and sitting party MLA from Kumhrar is sick, according to his son, Ashish Sinha. He said that his father was not fit for campaign as he was down with typhoid.
Though the Commission has deployed its observers and arranged videography of the public meetings, protocols of the Commission to prevent the spread of Corona are not being followed. People in the audience do not use masks and no screening is done.
Interestingly, Commission observers are finding it hard to come out of their rooms in view of Corona spread and avoiding visiting the public meetings. In the pre-Corona period elections, they used to visit the collectorates where nominations were filed.
On October 11, the first incident of violations was reported from Gandhi Maidan in Gaya, where BJP president J P Nadda launched the campaign. Here too, EC guidelines were flouted. Later, the local police lodged an FIR against the organisers of the meeting, the Gaya unit of BJP.
There is no arrangement of thermal screening anywhere in the state, no one is forced to use masks in these public meetings. Even in the mass contact programmes by the candidates, EC guidelines are not being followed. In the five constituencies in the state capital, candidates are moving with hundreds of their supporters having no masks.
So far, 2.08 lakh Corona positive cases have been reported in Bihar.
Election Commission of India on Wednesday sent a communication to all political parties contesting assembly elections expressing its concern over the gatherings in the public meetings and absence of safety measures against Corona.
