Three poll meetings of a party in a day under one PS allowed: SEC

KOLKATA: The state Election Commission (SEC) issued a directive on Thursday stating that a particular political party or a candidate can hold a maximum of three meetings within one police station area on a single-day. The permission for holding such meetings will be granted to the political parties on first come first served basis and there should be a minimum of 300 m distance between two meeting venues.

“We asked the Kolkata Police to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) regarding campaign by the political parties. The SOP was submitted to us and we have approved the same and brought out an order which should be followed during campaign,” a senior SEC official said.

Political parties have submit two copies to the Officer in Charge (OC) of a police station for holding of meetings. If the meeting involves a huge gathering of people it should be held on a big ground maintaining Covid protocols.

The SEC has already declared that campaign can be held from 8 am till 9 pm and should end 48 hours before the conclusion of elections on the poll day. State Election Commissioner Sourav Das met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday morning and apprised him of the measures taken for smooth conduct of the civic polls.

Later in the day, a Left Front delegation met Das and urged for allowing a person of a particular ward to be a booth agent at any polling booth within that ward. The SEC has issued an order stating that booth agents deployed on the poll day by the political parties will have to be a voter of that particular polling booth. A BJP delegation also met Das and urged for deployment of central forces.