JOIN USTMC demands curtailing West Bengal poll schedule amid rising Covid-19 cases
As the coronavirus pandemic ravages India's health infrastructure, with patients struggling to find hospital beds and basic medicines, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has submitted a memorandum to the West Bengal state election commission requesting them to club the remaining three phases together.
"On April 15, our party chief Mamata Banerjee appealed to Election Commission (EC) to club the remaining phases of polls, keeping an eye on Covid situation. She repeated the same thing on April 19. We've submitted a memorandum to state EC with a request to consider and review this," TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee while addressing an election rally had earlier urged the EC to reconsider its decision to stick to the original poll schedule of eight phases. She had stressed that wrapping up the last three phases of polls on a single day or at the most in two days will check the spread of the pandemic to some extent.
Questioning EC over the issue, TMC MP Mahua Moitra tweeted, "Why is EC hell-bent on killing us all? Why can the Epidemic Act not be invoked & voting clubbed together? How is BJP candidate’s right to campaign superior to voters’ right to life?"
Amid the steep rise in Covid-19 cases in West Bengal, Congress on April 19 had also urged the EC to defer the last three phases.
Earlier, the BJP said it has decided against holding any big rally or public meeting, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other party leaders, in the ongoing polls. The decision came amid the party facing flak from rivals for the big rallies of its leaders in West Bengal amid the Covid-19 tally rising to staggering levels across the country.
According to the Health Department, West Bengal reported the highest single-day spike of 8,426 new Covid-19 cases on April 19, while 38 people died of the infection in the state.
(With PTI inputs)