The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday, 13 May, announced that in view of the devastating second wave of COVID-19, the biennial elections to legislative councils of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are deferred indefinitely.
The EC has said that the polls will be conducted once the situation “significantly improves” and conditions become conducive to hold elections.
The polling body, which recently organised the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh and Assembly polls in the states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, as well as the Union Territory of Puducherry, was widely censured for holding mammoth electoral exercises whilst the country was being ravaged by COVID-19.
The EC had also approached the Supreme Court against remarks by the Madras High Court, which said that the poll body was “singularly responsible for the second wave of COVID” and its officers should probably be “booked on murder charges.”
Following widespread criticism from public and experts alike, the EC also recently postponed the by-elections to three Lok Sabha seats and eight seats in state Assemblies.
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