Prohibition on stopping of campaign van at any place more than 30 minutes!

The Election Commission has issued guidelines related to allowing the use of video vans for campaigning in the assembly elections to be held in five states. Under this, a ban has been imposed on the stay of video vans at any place for more than 30 minutes. To prevent the spread of corona infection, the Election Commission had extended the ban on organizing rallies till 31 January. However, the Commission on Saturday allowed campaigning through video vans in open spaces in the presence of a maximum of 500 spectators, following the Corona protocol. The commission had cautioned that the video van should not cause any inconvenience to the people and should not cause any hindrance in normal traffic.

Video van can be used for promotion of schemes and announcements

The commission had also issued guidelines related to the use of video vans by the parties by writing a letter to all the Chief Electoral Officers. The video van can be used by political parties for publicity of their plans and announcements, the letter said. Votes or support for any particular candidate cannot be sought through these. The letter states that if the video van is used for campaigning for a candidate, the expenditure will be recorded in the account of the candidate concerned. Election observers have been instructed to keep a close watch on such expenditure.

Let us inform that the Election Commission has made strict this time regarding the assembly elections of five states being held in the midst of the Corona epidemic. The Commission has banned many other things including the rallies of the leaders. Significantly, the first phase of elections is on February 10 and the results will be out on March 10. Elections are to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.