UP panchayat election 2021: Not more than 5 people allowed for campaigning, says Yogi government

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has said that the candidates in the upcoming panchayat elections will be allowed to campaign only in groups of five.

The state government also ordered them to compulsorily wear masks while campaigning. Among other measures, the state government has said that not more than 100 persons will be allowed at a time in weddings and other functions in view of the spiralling Covid-19 cases.

The Chief Minister gave these instructions at a meeting of Team 11 on Monday morning. Guests will have to adhere to safety protocols that include wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, the state government order said.

The new order, issued on Monday, is bound to cause considerable inconvenience to those who are hosting weddings in the coming days and have already invited guests more than the prescribed numbers.

"My daughter`s wedding is on April 23 and I have already sent out invites to about 200 persons, besides there will be guests coming with the `baraat`. I do not know how to tell the guests now that I am withdrawing the invite. This is impossible," said Shriram Swarup, a local businessman.

India recorded 96,982 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours that took the country's active count to 7.88 lakh, as per the data official data released on Tuesday (April 6, 2021) morning.

India also recorded 50,143 recoveries along with 446 deaths in the last 24 hours. The country's COVID-19 total has now soared to 1.26 crore (1,26,86,049), of which, 1.17 crore (1,17,32,279) have recovered, whereas, 1.16 lakh (1,65,547) have died of the virus.