ITANAGAR, Nov 20: Maintaining its strong objection to the rural and urban local body polls scheduled on December 22, the opposition Congress has once again urged upon the State Election Commission (SEC) to defer the Panchayat & Municipal elections 2020 till the arrival of COVID vaccine or conduct the election during March-April 2021.
Following the announcement of the simultaneous elections to the Panchayats and Municipalities, the opposition parties including the Congress, PPA and JD(S) had slammed the SEC for allegedly undermining the views of the political parties and announcing the poll schedule.
They were of the opinion that holding of elections during the prevailing pandemic situation would put the people’s lives at risk and the same may trigger COVID-19 waves in interior areas.
The Congress party’s fresh call for the poll postponement came during a meeting of Pradesh Congress Committee on Panchayat and Municipal elections 2020 held under the chairmanship of APCC president Nabam Tuki here today.
The meeting was attended by all the party MLAs, senior leaders, PCC office bearers and heads of frontal organizations, besides all the members of INC’s ‘State Panchayat & Municipal Election Committee 2020’.
In the meeting, all present univocally condemned the State Govt on COVID-19 management and suggested the Govt to go for maximum COVID tests in all the villages of the State, in order to ascertain the exact numbers of the infected persons and take utmost care to combat the virus.