The Election Commission will meet Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Monday, poll body sources told NDTV this morning, to discuss the Covid situation - specifically the threat posed by the Omicron strain - in Uttar Pradesh and four other states due to hold elections in February-March.
The meeting will take place a day before the commission's Dec 28-30 visit to UP.
The meeting also follows a suggestion from the Allahabad High Court - to defer the election in the state due to concerns of an Omicron-led third wave of coronavirus infections.
Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra yesterday told reporters: "I will be visiting UP next week. An appropriate decision as required by the situation will be taken after we review it."
On Thursday the Allahabad High Court asked the Election Commission to postpone the February-March election. The court also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban poll-related gatherings.
"If rallies are not stopped, results will be worse than the second wave," the court said, modifying the Prime Minister's lockdown slogan to add, "Jaan hai toh jahaan hai (if there is life, we have the world)."
Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu all witnessed a worrying spike in COVID-19 cases earlier this year after massive crowds at election rallies led by the Prime Minister and opposition leaders.
There is growing concern over the threat posed by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The variant is significantly more transmissible than the Delta strain that drove the second wave of infections in the country. It is also believed to have greater vaccine-evasion mutations - a concerning fact given that at least half of India's vaccine-eligible population has not had its second shot.
India has reported a total of 415 Omicron Covid cases so far (since the variant was first reported in South Africa in November), the Health Ministry said this morning.
Maharashtra - the worst affected state by the Delta variant - has the most with 108, followed by Delhi with 79. Of the states scheduled to hold Assembly elections in the next two-three months, only three have reported cases of the new strain - Gujarat has 43, UP two and Uttarakhand one.
Overall, UP has reported over 17 lakh COVID-19 cases and nearly 23,000 deaths since the pandemic began. The active caseload in the state - India's most populous - is, however, only 266.
Gujarat has reported nearly 8.3 lakh Covid cases and over 10,000 deaths; the latter figure, however, has been questioned after the state acknowledged it had paid compensation for over 16,000 cases.
On Uttarakhand's situation, the Election Commission chief said that since only one Omicron case had been reported so far, and all adults had been given the first dose, "the situation seems under control".
With input from PTI
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