With the Assembly elections just months away, there is a growing demand for its postponement from both the ruling and Opposition parties in view of the surging cases of COVID-19 in the State.
On Friday, Lok Janshakti Party, a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), requested the Election Commission to take a decision after “looking into all aspects.” Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Tejashwi Yadav also demanded postponement of elections.
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“A large section of the population should not be pushed into further danger. Besides, an election in the midst of the pandemic could result in a very low turnout, which will not be good for democracy,” tweeted LJP president Chirag Paswan. “The common man as well as the Central and State governments are financially strained due to the pandemic. Under the circumstances, polls will be an additional burden,” he said.
However, he said the LJP was prepared for election, as its Bihar parliamentary board has approved the booth list for 94 assembly seats. “The process for the remaining 149 constituencies will be completed soon,” Mr. Chirag said in another tweet.
Elections to the 243 assembly seats in the State is likely to be held in October-November this year.
Mr. Tejashwi Yadav also appeared to agree with the LJP president. The RJD leader took on the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government for its “failure” in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and the migrants issue. “There seems to be no containment and mitigation strategy in place and the exponential surge in new cases is worrying... Bihar is the worst hit and health experts fear countless deaths in the State, primarily because of the abysmally low testing and dilapidated medical infrastructure,” tweeted Mr. Yadav.
Earlier, Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) leader and former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav had urged the Election Commission to defer the elections and declared that he would approach the Supreme Court if his demand was not accepted. An advocate Badri Narayan Singh has filed a PIL in the Patna High Court for a postponement of polls amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the mahagathbandhan alliance partner Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), announced on Friday that the party was in favour of polls whenever the Election Commission decided to hold it.
Bihar, so far, has reported 111 deaths and 14330 positive cases of COVID-19. So far, 10251 patients have recovered.
