Even as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee have called off their election-related engagements following the big surge in the number of corona virus cases in West Bengal the Bharatiya Janata Party has no such plan for its bigwigs.
Instead, the party has made some changes in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s schedule for the state.
Earlier he was to address two election rallies each on April 21 and 24. But now he would be holding four such meetings in one day, that is on April 23 itself.
The four places where he is to deliver speeches are Malda, Murshidabad, Sewli and South Kolkata. In South Kolkata he would be addressing at Bhawanipore, the seat which chief minister Mamata Banerjee used to represent. She contested from Nandigram this time.
The programmes of other BJP leaders, including of home minister Amit Shah remain unchanged.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress have come down heavily on Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah for not cancelling their election campaign in the state.
The BJP leaders are on the other hand claiming that they are distributing masks to all those attending the rallies and social distancing is being maintained. The venues of the meeting are being properly sanitized.
Since West Bengal is in election mode the state government had not imposed any lockdown or strict restrictions. Only the Election Commission had curtailed the campaigning time and it has now been reduced from 10:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening.
West Bengal reported over 7,000 cases of COVID-19 on April 17. In all 34 people lost their lives in the state on that day.
This is the official figure and the unofficial toll may be higher.
