West Bengal polls: Top BJP, TMC leaders push ahead with big rallies despite record spike in COVID-19 cases

Top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress are slated to take part in massive public events in West Bengal on Monday, notwithstanding the steep rise in COVID-19 cases. Home Minister Amit Shah will attend three rallies and a roadshow, while BJP chief JP Nadda will take part in two roadshows, a public meeting and a town hall meeting on Monday, News18 reported. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee is slated to hold three rallies in the state and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to speak at four rallies on Monday. However, Banerjee on Sunday cancelled all her ‘big rallies’ in Kolkata and urged her party colleagues to scale down their campaigns in the state capital, reported The Times of India. Banerjee said her rally at north Kolkata’s Beadon Street will be her only one in the city. Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, the state registered its single-highest coronavirus spike with 8,419 new cases. The state also recorded 28 new fatalities, pushing the overall death count to 10.568. The state government on Sunday formed a four-member task force aimed at providing beds to infected people in private hospitals. At the national level, 2,73,810 new COVID-19 cases and 1,619 deaths have been reported in the past day. Despite this, large-scale political rallies are being held every day in West Bengal, and norms related to COVID-19 such as social distancing and masks are openly being flouted. Elections in Bengal are being held in a total of eight phases, with three phases still to go. The past few weeks, however, have seen coronavirus cases rise exponentially in the state. On 1 February, the state had reported just 198 COVID-19 cases , while on 16 April — a day before the fifth phase of elections — the figure rose to 6,910. The Election Commission has, somewhat belatedly, introduced new rules in a bid to impose curbs on political parties’ campaigns. Under the new rules, no political party will be permitted to hold any election rally between 7 pm and 10 am. Further, the Election Commission has also increased the ‘silence period’ for the upcoming phases to 72 hours from 48 hours. The silence period refers to the time before the polling date when political parties are barred for campaigning. The EC termed the COVID-19 situation as an “unprecedented public health situation”, and has ordered all candidates and political parties “to ensure absolute, repeat absolute, adherence to COVID-19 guidelines in letter and spirit.” Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday cancelled all his public rallies in Bengal following the rise in COVID-19 cases.

In view of the Covid situation, I am suspending all my public rallies in West Bengal.

I would advise all political leaders to think deeply about the consequences of holding large public rallies under the current circumstances.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 18, 2021

The CPM-led Left Front has also decided not to hold any big rallies in the remaining three rounds of polling, restricting its outreach to online measures and door-to-door campaigns. However, with coronavirus cases spiralling in West Bengal, these measures may be a case of ’too little too late’ in terms of helping to restrain the virus’ spread.