Roadshows, vehicle rallies remain on EC's no-go list; curbs on indoor, outdoor meetings raised

For physical rallies on Sunday, the Election Commission decided to relax even further the Covid-19 campaigning norms by abolishing the absolute number restriction of 1,000 people and instead allowing political parties and candidates to be as many as 30 percent of the capacity of the designated venue.

The Election Commission issued an order on Sunday saying "Restrictions regarding outdoor meeting/indoor meetings/rallies will be further relaxed subject to the condition that the number of persons attending the indoor/outdoor meetings/rallies will be limited to maximum of 50 percent of the capacity of Indoor halls and 30 percent of the open ground capacity or as fixed by District Electoral Officer (DEO) as per requirement of the social distancing norms and whichever is less".

A poll panel, however, has decided to prohibit road shows, 'Padyatras', cycle rallies, and vehicle rallies.

Until further notice, the poll panel said that the total number of persons permitted to canvass door-to-door will remain set at 20, and the campaigning ban will also remain in place from 8 pm to 8 am.

Five states will hold assembly elections - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Punjab. The results for these five assemblies will be announced on March 10.