Cannot take on the role of SDMA, says ECI on conducting polls amid COVID-19

"The EC can issue the direction and tell them and that they should take action, but ECI cannot take on the role of SDMA," Chief Election Commissioner of India Sushil Chandra said.

File Photo (ANI)

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has defended itself on conducting the polls amid COVID-19 and said that they cannot take on the role of the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMA).

The Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sushil Chandra, in an interview with Hindustan Times, said that the ECI continuously wrote to SDMA and that during the pandemic, it is the duty of SDMA to take action. 

"The election commission was always ahead of the curve. During the pandemic, it is the duty of SDMA to take action. We wrote to them continuously. We also took steps not to conduct bigger rallies, and to maintain social distancing. Ultimately, it is a decision SDMAs need to take," Chandra told Hindustan Times.

The ECI Chief was referring to the recently concluded assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.

He stated that by the time polling concluded on April 6, the second wave of COVID-19 in the country was not visible to this extent. 

"In West Bengal, we put restrictive measures in place since April 16. During these elections, neither did the SDMA issue any additional instructions on lockdown nor did it inform EC about the need for any specific curbs. On no occasion did we get any feedback in this regard," he added.

Chandra said that during the last three phases in the eight-phased West Bengal assembly elections, the ECI had increased the silent period from 48 hours to 72 hours and had communicated to the state authorities and the chief secretaries to book people, cancel rallies if they are not complying with the rules. 

He said that the EC can issue the direction and tell them and that they should take action, but cannot take on the role of SDMA.

"They are responsible for taking action on the ground. And at no stage did they tell us that there is any surge in the pandemic. If at any stage SDMA has not taken a proactive role in controlling this, then EC cannot be held responsible," Chandra said.

On being asked about considering to defer polls, Chandra said that it is the constitutional mandate of the ECI to conduct elections before the tenure of the assembly ends. 

"We are happy to have been able to conduct elections and are thankful to the voters, the state police, the central forces, and the 13 lakh election functionaries... Some of them overcame personal tragedies, but chose not to go on leave — that is the commitment of the election commission. We had consultations with states and disaster management authorities, and none of them suggested there was a need for deferring elections," he said.