{"id":797,"date":"2026-01-20T05:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T05:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/?p=797"},"modified":"2026-01-20T05:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T05:49:06","slug":"eci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/eci\/","title":{"rendered":"ECI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Respected Election Commission,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has been a week since the assembly elections were declared in 5 states and today also marks the last day of holding virtual rallies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this past week new COVID-19 cases in these election going states have at least doubled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td>State<\/td><td>New cases on 8<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Jan 2022<\/td><td>New cases on 8<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Jan 2022<\/td><td>% Increase<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Uttar Pradesh<\/td><td>6401<\/td><td>14735<\/td><td>2.31 Times<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Punjab<\/td><td>1773<\/td><td>5939<\/td><td>3.35 Times<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Goa<\/td><td>1789<\/td><td>3728<\/td><td>2.08 Times<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Manipur<\/td><td>76<\/td><td>155<\/td><td>2.08 Times<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Uttrakhand<\/td><td>610<\/td><td>3005<\/td><td>5 Times<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In view of the stark rise in the Covid numbers will you continue to ban physical rallies??<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If yes, then how will you punish the guilty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With an abysmal rural net penetration of 37.74% how will the candidates reach the voters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wouldn\u2019t this hamper the holding of free and fair election?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"569\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5bafi11o_cpim-rally-generic_625x300_15_april_21.webp\" alt=\"image_Deepak Sukhadia\" class=\"wp-image-799\" style=\"width:1920px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5bafi11o_cpim-rally-generic_625x300_15_april_21.webp 569w, https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5bafi11o_cpim-rally-generic_625x300_15_april_21-300x185.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 569px) 100vw, 569px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p>Some experts have said that the elections were to be blamed for Pandemic\u2019s second wave last year. In Tamil Nadu state your office was publicly rebuked by a court for not taking action earlier to stop big public rallies there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYour institution is singularly responsible for the second wave of Covid-19,\u201d the Madras high court had said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You have the powers under Section 153 THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT, 1951:-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><sub>\u201cExtention of time for completion of election.\u2014It shall be competent for the Election Commission for reasons which it considers sufficient, to extend the time for the completion of any election by making necessary amendments in the notification issued by it under section 30 or sub-section (1) of section 39.] to eof&nbsp; can be exercised only after an election schedule has been notified.\u201d<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under Article 324 of our Constitution you can inform the government of inability to hold polls looking at the rising Covid numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sir, these are extraordinary times \u2013 times that no one living has ever seen or imagined in their lifetimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a citizen of this country, I urge and plead you to reconsider your decision to hold these elections atleast for the time being till this third wave ebbs. I would rather see people queuing up to vote for candidates of their choice than standing in the lines to have their loved ones cremated. I would rather see voters selecting their representative than having to select whether to bury their loves on banks of Ganga or to let them float away in her water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regards,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deepak Sukhadia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Respected Election Commission, It has been a week since the assembly elections were declared in 5 states and today also marks the last day of holding virtual rallies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mindscape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwworld.com\/dsukhadia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}