1. It is expected that all stakeholders namely political parties, candidates,
campaigners, voters and authorities engaged in the election process shall
always be conscious of their prime duty towards public health / safety and
therefore shall abide by these general instructions and other norms of
Covid appropriate behavior as mandated by the respective authorities
prescribed under the law.
2. No road show, Pad-yatra, cycle/bike/vehicle rally and procession
shall be allowed till 15 January, 2022. Commission shall subsequently
review the situation and issue further instructions accordingly.
3. No physical rally of Political parties or probable candidates or any other
group related to election shall be allowed till 15 January, 2022. Commission
shall subsequently review the situation and issue further instructions
accordingly.
4. However, physical rallies during the campaign period, as and when
permitted after the decision of the Commission shall be conducted
subject to adherence to extant COVID-19 guidelines. The maximum limit
of persons allowed for Indoor and outdoor rally/meeting shall be as
per existing direction of respective SDMAs. For these meetings political
parties shall distribute masks and sanitizers to persons attending and
maintain COVID protocol at entry and exit point.
5. District Election Officer should take following steps for this purpose:
I. District Election Officer should, in advance, identify dedicated
grounds for public gathering with clearly marked Entry/Exit points.
II. In all such identified grounds, the District Election Officer should
ensure that markers for social distancing norms are put in place in
advance by organisers of the meeting/rally.
III. District Election Officer and District Superintendent of Police should
ensure that the number of attendees do not exceed the limit
prescribed by State Disaster Management Authority for public
gatherings. DEO should depute Nodal Health officers to oversee that
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COVID-19 instructions/guidelines are followed during these
meetings.
IV. The political parties and candidates concerned shall ensure that all
COVID-19 related requirement like face masks, sanitizers, thermal
scanning etc. are fulfilled during each of election related activities.
6. Further, rallies and meeting shall be allowed only in earmarked places
and with prior permissions of district administration.
7. Each political party/candidate shall furnish an undertaking in the
application form (under Suvidha) that it shall abide by all the extant
instructions/guidelines in this regard.
8. Allocation of public spaces must be done using Suvidha app in the manner
already prescribed by Commission.
9. Between 8 pm and 8 am no rallies and public meetings (akin to
campaign curfew) shall be allowed on any campaign day.
10. Nukkad Sabhas (meeting) will not be allowed on public roads, round
abouts or public streets or corners.
11. Further, Political parties and candidates are advised to conduct their
campaign as much as possible through digital/virtual/ media
platforms /mobile based mode instead of physical mode ensuring strict
compliance of Covid safety norms.
12. Door to Door Campaign- A maximum of 5 (five) persons including
candidate, excluding security personnel, if any, shall be allowed to do door
to door campaigning.
13. The convoy of vehicles shall be broken after every 5 (five) vehicles
and interval between two sets of convoys of vehicles should be half an hour
instead of gap of 100 meters. (In supersession of Para 5.8.1of Returning
Officer’s Handbook 2019). During the permitted campaign period, convoy of
vehicles will be allowed only for movement of vehicle from one point to
another point for campaigning.
14. The maximum number of star campaigners for recognized
National/State political parties has been fixed 30 in place of 40, for
unrecognized political parties 15 in place of 20. Request for permission for
campaign by star campaigners may be given at least 48 hours before the
start of campaign to make all necessary safety arrangements.
15. No victory procession after the counting shall be allowed and not more
than two persons shall be allowed to accompany the winning candidate or
his/her authorized representative to receive the certificate of election from
Returning Officer.
16. If a candidate or political party violates any of the above
guidelines, no further permission shall be given to the concerned
candidate/party for rallies, meetings etc.
17. The Commission on 29th December, 2021 has directed Secretary, MoHFW
to issue direction to treat all eligible govt. officials, deployed/engaged for
elections, at par with Front Line Workers (FLWs) in the poll going states
and to give them additional precaution dose of COVID-19.
