EC tightens curbs as WB heads for 5th round of voting

A 72-hour campaign silence period will be in place in the remaining rounds of voting in West Bengal, the Indian Election Commission said yesterday, citing rising Covid cases. Rallies or meetings will not be allowed between 7 pm and 10 am, said the election body a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for clubbing the four phases into one day. The EC ruled out packing the rest of the vote into one day of voting. The poll panel has said all candidates and political parties must wear masks and it will be the duty of organisers of rallies to ensure masks and sanitisers. The usual 48-hour silence period - when all campaigning is on hold ahead of the vote - was earlier extended to 72 hours for the fifth phase in Bengal today.