Lucknow: As no covid norms were being followed during the election rallies which could lead for tge third wave of the COVID-19, the Allahabad High Court has urged the Election Commission to postpone the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 by a month or two.

The court also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the EC to immediately ban rallies and public meetings of political parties in the state amid the rising fears of the highly contagious Covid variant Omicron. “If rallies are not stopped, results will be worse than the second wave,” Justice Shekhar Yadav said. The court made the observations while hearing an unconnected bail petition.

Pointing out that the court was regularly crowded as hundreds of cases were listed daily and social distancing was not followed by the large number of people who gathered there, the judge said: “There’s a possibility of the third wave of Covid as the cases of the new variant Omicron are rising”. Citing news reports of increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths, the HC said the third wave “is at our doorstep”.

“Gram Panchayat elections and the Bengal assembly elections infected a lot of people, which caused many deaths as well,” the judge said. He pointed out that political parties are organising rallies and gatherings for the upcoming UP assembly elections and following Covid protocols in such events is impossible.

Justice Yadav appealed to the ECI to direct the parties to not campaign through rallies and public meetings but through newspapers and “doordarshan” or the television medium. Invoking Article 21 of the Constitution, he said “all Indians have a right to life”.