CM Mamata Banerjee Not to Campaign in Kolkata Over COVID Surge

File image of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. 

(Photo Courtesy: Meghna Prakash/The Quint)

In light of the surge of COVID-19 cases, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not campaign in Kolkata for theongoing Assembly Elections anymore, said All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien in a tweet on Sunday, 19 April.

The TMC supremo will only hold one symbolic 30-minute meeting on the last day of campaigning on 26 April, as per O’Brien.

The move comes as political parties are being criticized for holding massive rallies in West Bengal as India faces a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of cases scaling new highs each day.

Rahul Gandhi Suspends Campaigning In West Bengal

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, 18 April, too announced that he will be suspending all his political rallies in West Bengal because of the rise in COVID-19 cases in the state and the country.

“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,” Gandhi said on Twitter.

West Bengal still has three phases of the polls due. Meanwhile, since the elections have begun in the state, the COVID cases have shot up 22 times.

CM To Urge EC To Not Allow Outsiders Without Negative COVID Test

Banerjee on Friday, 16 April, had said she would ask the Election Commission not to allow 'outsiders' into the state if they did not have a negative RT-PCR COVID report.

Speaking at a rally in North 24 Parganas, Banerjee added that the Modi government had neglected COVID in a bid to hold elections, due to which cases are rising.

West Bengal reported 8,419 fresh COVID cases, 4,053 discharges, and 28 deaths on Sunday. Active cases are 49,638, and the death toll stood at 10,568 cases.