Page 178 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Leap of Faith Journey of Indian Elections

By the last week of January, 2020, COVID-19 had begun to members are elected by an electoral college comprising
make a buzz in India. S ll it was life as usual when on elected members of the legisla ve assembly of the state
February 8, the Delhi Legisla ve Assembly elec ons were concerned. The elec on got reduced to only for 18 seats in
held peacefully. However, within days of the results being Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
declared on February 11, the alarm bells had started ringing. Manipur, Meghalaya and Rajasthan as 37 seats in 10 states
were filled uncontested. The elec ons for the contested
On February 25, 2020 the Elec on Commission announced
seats were held on March 26, 2020 when COVID-19 caught
elec ons to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) to fill 55 up with the plans, forcing their postponement under
seats of Members from 17 states re ring in April, 2020. A
Sec on 153 of the Representa on of the People Act, 1951.
no fica on to the effect was issued on March 6, 2020. The
elec on for Rajya Sabha– under Ar cle 80 (4) of the The situa on became more menacing as the days passed.
Cons tu on – is held in accordance with propor onal On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organiza on
representa on by means of single transferrable vote. The declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. By then there were

Polling officials wore special PPE kits and maintained adequate social distancing while observing and conducting the Rajya Sabha Election, June 2020

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