Assembly polls: EC’s verdict on video vans comes with riders

The Election Commission’s decision to allow parties to use video vans for campaigning in polled states comes with a series of stringent measures, including allowing the vehicle to be used by more than one person at any “point of view”. Time can’t stop. 30 minutes. Banning physical election rallies till January 31 to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Election Commission on Saturday launched a campaign with general COVID-19 restrictions in designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 spectators. Video van was allowed for

It had cautioned that incidents of video vans should not cause inconvenience to the people and should not hamper the smooth flow of traffic. After allowing the use of video vans on Saturday, the Commission had issued instructions to its Chief Electoral Officers to use such vehicles for campaigning by parties.

In a letter to the CEO, the Election Commission said, “The video van of a political party should be used to publicize its program and policies for seeking votes. Votes or support of any particular candidate should not be solicited.” However, if the video van is used for seeking votes or supporting a candidate, then the expenditure of the video van by such candidate should be properly accounted for. “Expense supervisors to keep a close watch on this,” the letter underlined. Vans can be operated only between 8 am and 8 pm and these vehicles cannot be used for rallies and road shows.