West Bengal: State Election Commission asks political parties to hold virtual campaigns for election due to pandemic

At a time when TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee expressing his personal view that all activities should be postponed for next two months due to the rise in the COVID-19 cases and with the doctors asking to cancel all public activities, State Election Commission (SEC) floated a notice that all political parties should hold ‘virtual campaign’ for upcoming civic polls in the state scheduled in January 22.

“Due to the rise in the COVID-19 affected rate in the state all the political parties should hold virtual rallies in order to avoid gatherings on road,” read part of the letter.

Welcoming the move, the opposition claimed that it is a ‘wise’ decision.

CPI (M) leader Shamik Lahiri said that they had sent a letter to SEC requesting them to hold an all party meet but the SEC didn’t reply to them.

“We all are in favor of canceling the civic polls as the pandemic is taking a toll on all of us. Suddenly the SEC is saying that the campaigning will be virtual. We demand instant cancellation of the polls,” said Lahiri.

BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh claimed that it was not ‘virtual campaign’ but the elections should be canceled as the number of affected people is rising by ‘leaps and bounds’.

It can be recalled that the TMC always demanded immediate holding of the civic polls as the term of all the municipal bodies have expired while all the oppositions demanded defer in the polls in keeping with the situation.