'Election Commission must insist on 2 vaccine doses...': Prashant Kishor's 'only safe way' to hold Assembly polls amid rising COVID-19 cases

Amid rising COVID-19 cases in the country, poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday recommended the "only safe way" to hold the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

"EC MUST insist on two vaccine doses for at least 80% people in poll-bound states. This is the only SAFE way to hold elections in the midst of a raging pandemic. Rest everything is HOGWASH. The notion of guidelines for Covid appropriate behaviour, which no one follows, is FARCICAL," Prashant Kishor tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Centre clarified that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in its meeting with the Election Commission of India (ECI) yesterday, presented the status of COVID spread and of vaccination coverage in the country, with special focus on the five poll-bound states.

The Union Health Ministry, in a press release, while refuting media reports, said, "Union Health Secretary in his meeting with ECI presented the overall global and domestic status of the spread of COVID, as well as Omicron, in the country. Details were also presented on the status of preparedness of the public health response within the States for control and management of the increasing numbers of COVID cases." "The focus of the presentation was on the five poll-bound states and their neighbouring states," it added.

The Ministry also called the reports suggesting that, in the meeting, they suggested that the COVID situation in the country is nothing to be worried about and there is no cause of alarm or concern in the view of very few cases of Omicron in the poll-bound states, as "highly ill-informed", "misleading" and "far from the truth".

"These reports have a very high tendency to start a misinformation campaign in the midst of a pandemic," the Ministry said.

(With ANI inputs)

Published on: Friday, January 07, 2022, 05:19 PM IST