India, January 22: The election commission on Saturday extended the ban on physical rallies and roadshows till January 31, 2022.
This comes after the poll panel earlier today held several virtual meetings to decide whether the ban imposed by it on physical rallies and roadshows to prevent the spread of coronavirus should continue.
Earlier the election commission had put a ban on holding physical roadshows and rallies by political parties until January 15 which was then extended till January 22.
The commission, however, has allowed physical public meetings for phases 1 and 2 of elections from January 28 and February 1.
Moreover, the limit of five people for door-to-door campaign has been increased to 10. Video vans for publicity has also been permitted at designated open spaces with COVID restrictions, the poll body said.
Further, Commission has already granted relaxation for the political parties to the extent that indoor meetings of a maximum of 300 persons or 50% of the capacity of the hall or the prescribed limit set by SDMA is allowed.
India reported 3,37,704 fresh COVID cases (9,550 more than yesterday) and 2,42,676 recoveries and 488 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total 21,13,365 active cases are in the country with a daily positivity rate of 17.22 per cent.
