Urge EC with folded hands to curtail West Bengal poll schedule amid COVID-19 surge, says Mamata Banerjee

Chakulia: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged the Election Commission to re-consider its decision to stick to the original poll schedule, as she stressed that wrapping up the last three phases of polls on a single day or at least in two days would check the spread of COVID-19 to a certain extent. Indicating that the EC may have decided against clubbing the remaining phases at the behest of the BJP, Banerjee, while addressing her rally in Uttar Dinajpur, requested the poll panel to prioritise public health. “With folded hands, I request the EC to hold the next three phases on a single day. If not one day, conduct it in two days and save one day. “Please don’t take your decision based on what the BJP says… Please ensure that you protect public health by curtailing the poll schedule, even if it is by one day,” the TMC supremo said. The chief minister further said that she and other leaders of her party would not hold any rally in congested areas. Banerjee lambasted the Narendra Modi government for “not taking adequate measures in the past six months to avert vaccine crisis”. Calling the BJP a party of “rioters and war mongers”, she told people gathered at the rally, “Don’t allow them (saffron party leaders) to turn Bengal into Gujarat.”