Confident of holding polls on schedule: CEC
The Election Commission is confident of holding the five assembly polls due early next year, including in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, on time as the poll panel has gained a lot of experience from the electoral exercise in Bihar, West Bengal and four other assemblies amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said.
The terms of the legislative assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand are coming to an end in March 2022, while the term of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly is scheduled to end in May.
“That is the foremost duty of the Election Commission that we should hold the elections and submit the list of the winning (to the governor) before the term of the assembly expires,” Chandra told PTI in an interview.
“As you are aware that the second wave of COVID-19 is also receding and the numbers (of infections) are quite less. We have done elections in Bihar during the pandemic, we have done elections in four states and one UT... We have learned how to hold polls during the pandemic,” he said.