The Election Commission of India on Saturday extended the ban on roadshows and rallies in the five poll-bound states till January 31.

However, it increased the cap on the number of people attending public meetings and doorstep campaigns from five to 10.

The order came on a day Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel retweeted a video of a large crowd accompanying Union home minister Amit Shah on door-to-door campaigns in Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana. Baghel, who was slapped with an FIR last week for allegedly violating Covid-19 norms during a similar campaign in UP’s Gautam Buddha Nagar, alleged bias by the EC.

He retweeted Bharat Samachar channel’s footage of Shah and his supporters campaigning without masks in a lane in Kairana and said: “Honourable home minister Amit Shah ji is doing door-to-door campaign with ‘5 people’. EC should make this video a demo and declare him as the brand ambassador of the ‘door-to-door’ campaign. Otherwise questions on the fairness of @ECISVEEP will continue. Why FIR only on the Chief Minister of Congress?”

Neither the election authorities nor the state government has responded to the alleged flouting of Covid norms by Shah till this report was filed.

For phase 1 polling on February 10, “physical public meetings” can be held with a cap of 500 people from January 28. For phase 2 polling on February 14, such meetings can be held from February 1.

“(The) Commission has also allowed video vans for publicity with usual Covid restrictions at designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 viewers or 50 per cent of the capacity or the limit set by SDMA, whichever number is lesser, in the poll-going states subject to public convenience and no hindrance to smooth flow of traffic,” the EC said in a note after a meeting with the union health secretary and virtual meetings with chief secretaries, health secretaries and chief electoral officers of the Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa.