Heat wave keeps people indoors in Bengal

With the southern districts of West Bengal reeling under a heat wave, candidates and party activists campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections are facing the brunt of weather gods. While discomfort runs high, the regional meteorological office says that there are hardly any chances of the weather relenting in the next few days.

“The heat wave will continue in south Bengal for at least till Saturday,” regional Met director G C Debnath told reporters. Met also officials pointed out that the weather in Kolkata and other parts of south Bengal is almost unprecedented with the maximum temperature on Friday standing at 41 degrees Celsius, six degrees higher than normal temperature this time of the year. The brunt of this was mostly borne by candidates and activists of various political parties who were out campaigning on road shows, rallies and street corner meetings. For candidates like Moonmoon Sen, Dev, Sandhya Roy, Bappi Lahiri, Babul Supriyo, Chandan Mitra, Dr Ratna De Nag and others, who were campaigning, the heat sapped the energy out of them. 

The political agents of these candidates informed that most of took necessary precautions like drinking lots of water, fruit juice, coconut water and other liquids that gave them energy to brave the heat. Most of them were found wearing sunglasses and sporting hats to cover their heads  although nothing could provide much comfort .

Most of the campaign managers acknowledged that during the early afternoon they were mostly passing through deserted areas as most people stayed indoors.