The state election commission on Monday issued a series of guidelines, mostly restrictions on campaigns, ahead of the January 22 civic polls in the wake of the rising Covid-19 cases.

The poll panel also decided to appoint a nodal health officer for each of the four civic corporations (Bidhannagar, Asansol, Siliguri and Chandernagore) to oversee the pandemic-related arrangements and precautions.

The candidates, election agents, polling agents, counting agents and drivers will have to produce at least the provisional certificate of vaccination, or, preferably, the final vaccination certificate, before they come in contact with polling officials or other people.

Road shows, on-foot or bicycle rallies, rallies with motorcycles and other vehicles have been banned. Permissions already issued stand withdrawn, the panel said.
For door-to-door campaigns, a maximum of five persons, including the candidate, but excluding security personnel, would be allowed.

Political meetings conducted in open spaces could comprise a maximum of 500 persons. By open spaces, the commission means “big grounds with separate entry and exit”. In case of meetings inside halls, a maximum of 200 people or 50 per cent of the seating capacity of the hall, whichever is lower, would be allowed.

The commission restricted hours for campaigns between 9am and 8pm. The campaign period that was to end 48 hours before the end of polling on the poll date, will now close 72 hours prior.

The notice mandates the sanitisation of poll premises and use of masks for all accessing them. Each person entering the premises must undergo thermal scanning and hand sanitisation. Quarantined Covid patients can cast their votes in the final hour.

All major Opposition parties — the BJP, the CPM and the Congress — criticised the decision to go ahead with the civic polls.

Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya accused the commission of functioning as a front of the ruling party. “This proves public health is deemed a secondary concern in Bengal,” he said.

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury agreed with Bhattacharya’s allegation.

Trinamul’s candidate for Bidhannagar’s ward 35, Joydeb Naskar, was seen flouting Covid-19 safety norms on Monday, when he took out a rally while on his way to file the nomination. Most people in the rally were without masks. Naskar, however, claimed he had not mobilised the crowd, attributing it to “spontaneity” of the people of Salt Lake.

In Chandernagore, posters were seen in several places, demanding the deferral of the civic polls. The posters, put up in the name of “Chandernagore Citizens’ Forum”, were used to cover those of political parties.

“In order to save Chandernagore from the coronavirus, the ill-timed civic polls must be called off,” they read.

(Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty)