Taking into consideration the number of COVID-19 infections in the country, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has revised its guidelines for elections to the Karnataka North West Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies, and the Karnataka West Teachers’ constituency, allowing 20 persons to take up door-to-door campaigning.
The polling for these elections is scheduled to take place on June 13 and the districts of Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Haveri, and Gadag come under the jurisdiction of Karnataka West Teachers’ constituency of the Legislative Council.
Chairman of the council Basavaraj Horatti is currently representing the constituency and is all set to seek another term.
As per the revised guidelines, road shows, padayatras, bike and vehicle rallies, and also processions have been banned and the maximum number of persons permissible for the door-to-door campaigning has been fixed at 20.
The candidates and political parties have also been directed not to hold any kind of campaign activities between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Restrictions have also been imposed on outdoor and indoor meeting. The limit has been fixed to a maximum of 50% of the capacity of the indoor halls and 30% of the open ground capacity. However, the Election Commission has clarified that these restrictions could be further relaxed based on the prevailing pandemic situation.
The ECI has also said that open ground rallies could be held only on designated grounds subject to the compliance of all the conditions of the State Disaster Management Authority.
Allocation of these grounds would be done through the e-suvidha portal on a first-come first-serve basis. This apart, it has been prescribed that there should be multiple entry and exit points to these grounds and sanitizers and thermal scanning should be set up at these points.
The seating arrangements should ensure adequate social distancing and the use of masks at all times is mandatory, as per the guidelines.
Emphasising the need for strict adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, the ECI has said that for any breach of the protocol, the organisers would be held responsible. The ECI has directed district magistrates to nominate nodal officials to oversee the arrangements done by the organisers.
Meanwhile, Assistant Returning Officer of the Karnataka West Teachers’ constituency and Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Gurudatta Hegde has directed persons holding gun licenses to deposit their arms and ammunition at the nearest police station.
In an order released on Saturday, Mr. Hegde has said that as the code of conduct was in place, those holding gun licenses should deposit their arms and ammunition.
