Vidhan Sabha (state assembly) elections are due next year in five states which will take up the whole calendar of 2022. These polls will be conducted even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage and its new Omicron variant causes apprehensions across the country and the world. Elections will be conducted in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh throughout the year 2022.

The Election Commission has decided not to postpone elections even as the Covid pandemic seems to be rearing its head in the country with a resurgence in the number of cases, including that of the new Omicron variant.  

The most populous state amongst these, Uttar Pradesh, has a single-dose vaccine coverage of 85%, whereas 47% of the eligible population has received two doses of the COVID vaccine. As per Time of India, 15.04 crore people are eligible for vaccination and 7.01 crore people have been administered two doses of the vaccine.

In Punjab, another state that is due for polls in early 2022, has an adult population of 2.27 crore, of which 75% have received a single dose of the vaccine and only 40% are double vaccinated. This is the lowest percentage of vaccination coverage throughout the country.

Talking of other poll-bound states, in Gujarat, 96% of the eligible population and 85% have received two doses of the vaccine. Whereas, according to PIB, the vaccination rates in Goa and Uttarakhand outperforms the national average. In Goa, 11,00,000 people have been administered the second dose and 13,99,309 people have received the first dose. In Uttarakhand, 96% of the population has received the first dose, and 77% are vaccinated with the second dose.

In Manipur, 13,20,660 people have been vaccinated with the first dose and 9,80,810 have received the second dose. If we look at the north eastern states including Manipur and Assam, we find that 70% of the eligible population has received the first dose and 55% has received the second dose.