The Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sunil Arora said on Friday we are here to announce the elections of one of the largest states of India, Bihar. If you see, the relative statistics, this is the biggest election in the world amid Covid times.
Election will be held in 3 phase and counting will be on 10th November .
Sunil Arora said that the poll body has held several interactions with CEO of Bihar and these are some of the arrangements being made for the conduct of assembly elections amid coronavirus pandemic:
– 7 lakh sanitizers
– 46 lakh masks
– 6 lakh PPE kits
– 7.6 lakh units of face shields
-23 lakh unit of hand gloves will be distributed during election .
As days and months passed and Covid-19 showed no signs of abetting, it was realised that some way would have to be found to balance the democratic rights of the electorate while also making sincere and systematic efforts to protect health amd safety of people,” CEC Sunil Arora during press conference to announce the election schedule for Bihar assembly polls.
To further decongest polling stations and allow more free movement of voters, polling time has been increased by 1 hour. It’ll be held from 7 am-6 pm, instead of 7 am-5 pm earlier. However, this will not be applicable to Left-wing affected areas,” CEC Sunil Arora said.
Elections entail large scale deployment of security forces. We have tried to minimise their movement over long distances. This is due to their fatigue as well as Covid-19. We have reduced the number of phases to three due to this,” said Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora while addressing the press in New Delhi.
Amid the pandemic, several measures have been taken for campaigning and polling to ensure safety of leaders and voters. Polling has been extended by one hour from 7 am to 6 pm. The last hour will be reserved for those with Covid-19 and who are quarantined.
Several countries have held elections amid the pandemic. However, CEC Arora said the Bihar polls are likely to be the largest elections conducted during the pandemic given there are with 72.9 million electors in the state.
