New Delhi: Despite a ban on victory processions imposed by the Election Commission (EC) in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the country, workers and supporters of leading parties were seen celebrating in the streets on Sunday (May 2).
Seeing the situation on the ground, the EC issued an order asking the respective states to take immediate action to stop such gatherings, news agency ANI reported.
Election Commission of India writes to Chief Secretaries of all States/UTs to "prohibit victory celebrations urgently". ECI also directs that responsible SHOs and other officers must be suspended immediately and criminal and disciplinary actions must be initiated against them pic.twitter.com/4aEydSH42P
— ANI (@ANI) May 2, 2021
DMK workers and supporters were seen celebrating in large numbers outside Anna Arivalayam, the party headquarters here, as official trends show the party leading.
Take a look at the visuals of the TMC supporters celebrating at Kalighat in Kolkata:
#WATCH TMC supporters celebrate at Kalighat, Kolkata as party leads on 202 seats as per official trends#WestBengalElections2021 pic.twitter.com/iiOyPhf8be
— ANI (@ANI) May 2, 2021
In the wake of a sudden surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, the Election Commission had earlier banned all victory processions on or after the day of the counting of votes.
As the counting has come to an end, ruling parties were poised to return to power in three states with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress striding way ahead of the BJP in West Bengal while the BJP was comfortably ahead in Assam as was the LDF in Kerala, Election Commission trends indicated.
As votes were counted for the assembly polls in four states and one union territory with strict Covid protocols in place, trends indicated that Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK could cede power to arch rival DMK.
