COVID-19: Congress urges CEC to cancel polls rallies, postpones 'Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun' marathons

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, Sushil Chandra urging him "to cancel big rallies in view of anticipated 3rd COVID-19 wave.’’

The main opposition party also sought to suggest the poll panel to stop PM Narendra Modi, CM Yogi Adityanath from using government machinery and public money for inaugurations and making political statements at these events."

UP Congress Committee writes to Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra "to cancel big rallies in view of anticipated 3rd COVID wave...; suggests EC to stop PM, CM Yogi Adityanath from using govt machinery/money for inaugurations & making political statements at these events." pic.twitter.com/aqYmrJyX01

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 5, 2022

With coronavirus cases seeing a sudden spurt in the country, the Congress party also decided to put on hold all its big public rallies and functions, including its 'Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun' marathons, in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

Sources said senior party leaders at AICC talked to UP Pradesh Congress leaders and took the decision in view of public safety. A decision will also be taken by Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) in other poll-bound states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur soon, a Congress leader said.

Uttar Pradesh Congress has postponed its 'Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun' marathon due to rise in COVID cases

7 to 8 marathons were planned in Noida, Varanasi, and various other districts of the states in the coming days pic.twitter.com/v62e6YKOQE

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 5, 2022

The AICC has asked all PCCs in the poll-bound states to assess the situation in their respective states and then take a call on the postponement of rallies and public functions. The PCCs would soon take a call on this, the party sources said.

This comes at a time when 243 new cases of highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron were detected in the last 24 hours, taking India`s Omicron tally to 2,135 cases. Of these, 828 people have recovered from the new strain so far.

Maharashtra and Delhi continue to be the worst-hit states with this new variant. Among the states and union territories (UTs) that have reported the Omicron infection so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 653 cases of this variant. Of them, 259 patients have been discharged as per the health ministry data on Wednesday. The state alone has reported 85 new Omicron cases in the last 24 hours.

With 82 cases of Omicron variant detected in the last 24 hrs, Delhi`s tally has reached 464. The national capital has the second-highest cases of Omicron infection.