Pandemic becomes a political weapon in West Bengal polls

CM Mamata Banerjee has accused PM Modi and the BJP of aiding the spread of infections in Bengal

The second wave of the Covid-19 infections seems to have become a political weapon for both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP in West Bengal where Assembly elections are underway.

With a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in Bengal, where daily cases are getting closer to breaching the 10,000-mark, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of aiding the spread of infections. The TMC supremo alleged that the Prime Minister did not pay heed to her repeated requests of allowing the state government of purchasing vaccines on its own citing shortage in Bengal and other states.

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Accusing the Centre of not cooperating with her government, Mamata in a letter to Modi termed the supply of vaccines by the Centre to Bengal as “scarce and erratic”. The TMC supremo in another letter to Modi on Tuesday accused the Centre of resorting to “empty rhetoric” by allowing Covid-19 vaccination to all above 18 years of age while dodging the responsibility of making it available in the market.

Mamata further alleged that social distancing norms were violated at the Prime Minister’s rallies in Bengal for political gains.

Giving a new twist to her “outsider” jibe at the BJP, Mamata has accused the saffron party of bringing thousands of “outsiders” to Bengal without proper testing. She claimed that these “outsiders” were moving around freely in the state and mingling with locals aiding the spread of infection.

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She has repeatedly demanded that the Election Commission (EC) should club the remaining three phases of the West Bengal Assembly elections in view of rising Covid-19 cases. Mamata also accused the EC of refusing to do so to ensure that the Prime Minister’s rallies in Bengal do not get disrupted.

“We will expose the BJP government’s double standard and biased attitude against Bengal with regard to the pandemic,” said a senior TMC leader.

State BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya shot back saying that “running out of issues, the TMC is now trying to cling to the pandemic to stay afloat”. The state BJP leadership alleged that if Mamata was sincere in tackling the pandemic, she would not have skipped the Prime Minister’s meeting with Chief Ministers on the issue.