Polls: 5 states not to have PM’s pic on vax certificate
New Delhi, Jan. 9: Covid vaccination certificates issued in the five pollbound states will not have Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo since the model code of conduct has come into force there, an official source said.
The Union health ministry will apply necessary filters on the Co-WIN platform to exclude Modi’s photo from the vaccine certificate, the source said. Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa will be held between February 10 and March 7 in seven phases with the counting of votes on March 10, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.
With the announcement of the schedule, the Model Code of Conduct for governments, candidates and political parties has come into force.
“The health ministry will apply necessary filters on the CoWIN platform to exclude the picture of the prime minister from the Covid-19 certificates being given to people in these five poll-bound states because of the model code of conduct coming into force,” an official source said.
In March 2021, health ministry had taken a similar initiative during the polls held in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry as suggested by the Election Commission following complaints raised by some political parties.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday expressed concern over the “increasing” use of religion in politics during elections and said the Election Commission must curb this worrying trend.
Her remarks came a day after UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the Assembly elections in the state will be an ‘80 per cent versus 20 per cent one’, alluding to the roughly 20 per cent Muslim population.
“In the past few years, during the elections, there have been attempts to derive electoral advantage using religion. This impacts the election and the entire country is worried about this,”Mayawati told reporters.
The EC should take serious steps to curb the narrow politics of selfishness as was evident in the past few years,” she added.
Accusing the Adityanath government of foisting a jungle raj through its biased policies, Mayawati also claimed that the BJP will lose the 2022 elections “if there is no misuse of government machinery and there are no discrepancies in EVMs”.