Covid-19 Protocol at the counting centres on May 2:
⚫ No candidate or agent or counting officials will be allowed inside the counting centres without producing negative reports for RT-PCR/Rapid Antigen Test or certificate of two doses of vaccination against Covid-19
⚫ No one, including political party cadres, will be allowed within the 100-metre periphery of the counting centres. The 100-metre no-entry zone will be demarcated
⚫ Public gathering will not be allowed even outside the 100 metres of the counting centres
⚫ No one having fever or Covid-19-like symptoms will be allowed inside the counting centre.
⚫ Not more than two persons will be allowed to accompany the winning candidates to receive the certificate from the returning officer
“I think Covid has become the most important issue in today’s phase and it will also remain the most important issue in the last phase of the polls on Thursday,” said Moloy Prakash Mitra, 49, who voted at a booth on Ballygunge Circular Road.
“Issues like unemployment and development have become secondary. It is now a question of life and death,” said the businessman.
Sukla Mitra, 70, Moloy’s mother, added: “There can be no justification for allowing such huge rallies and meetings. No one was wearing masks during election campaigns and there was no distancing. Yet the rallies continued.”
Sixty-nine-year-old Chandra Chatterjee, who voted at a booth in Lake Market, found “no justification” for having eight-phase polls in Bengal. “The eight-phase polls are squarely responsible for the Covid situation in Bengal today. If elections can be held in two-three phases in other states, then why not in Bengal?” she asked.
“It is very suffocating. I just lowered my mask to breathe properly for a while,” said a young man who had his mask literally hanging from his chin.
At another polling booth at a school in Rifle Range, social distancing in the queue seemed like an alien concept.
Things were no different at the booth inside Patha Bhavan school in Ballygunge. After this newspaper started taking pictures, the jawans guarding the booth took it upon themselves to prod people to stand apart from each other.
At a polling station inside a girls’ school on Sarat Bose Road, voter after voter was discarding the gloves on the road outside the booth, though yellow bins had been kept on the booth premises to dispose of the gloves.
An old man, walking with a stick, came out of a booth on Ramesh Mitra Road in Bhowanipore around 11am.
The April sun was scorching and the man paused to rest for a few seconds after every few steps. On seeing a couple of TV cameras, he flashed his left index finger marked with the poll ink.
“Some of my family members and neighbours were sceptical about me stepping out to vote. But I was bent on voting. Voting gives me a reassurance that I am still not invalid,” said Sambhu Nath Dutta, 86, a resident of Puddapukur in Bhowanipore.
Asked what the main issue that influenced his voting was, Dutta replied: “I voted for a Bengal where everyone can live together peacefully, a Bengal without violence.”
Bengal records 75% voting in seventh phase of polling deccanchronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from deccanchronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.