Politics over coronavirus outbreak starts in West Bengal

Politics over the COVID-19 outbreak has started in West Bengal. In its bid to boost Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s image the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has launched a subtle social media campaign regarding her efforts to tackle the outbreak.

Recently, TMC posted an animated sketch on their official twitter handle which depicts the Chief Minister standing atop a high wall that surrounds a city and facing up to an ominous cloud, which is the novel coronavirus. It also shows that as the Chief Minister is standing guard against the coronavirus, and people are peacefully sleeping in their homes.

READ: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on April 1

The sketch is accompanied by a caption in Bengal, roughly translated as “People are in peace as Mamata guards Bengal,” TMC sources revealed that the sketch is the brainchild of poll strategist Prashant Kishor.

Banerjee has been one of the most proactive political leader and Chief Minister ever since the COVID-19 outbreak made its presence felt in the country. While other political personalities have mostly remained indoors Banerjee is conducting several visits to market places and hospitals.

Her actions have largely been praised by the people of the state and are likely to benefit TMC in a significant manner in the now indefinitely deferred municipal elections and the 2021 Assembly elections.

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Keen on not being left behind state BJP leaders have also started to hit the streets to distribute aid among people. This has sparked off a bitter war of words with the TMC leadership.

Police stopped state BJP leader Sabyasachi Dutta on Tuesday when tried to distribute relief materials prompting the BJP leadership to allege that the state administration was selectively preventing their leaders from distributing aid but allowing TMC leaders.

“What the Chief Minister is doing is politics and not public service. If she can roam around distributing relief material, then why are we being prevented?” said state BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

Reacting to Ghosh’s comment senior TMC leader and Minister Sujit Bose dubbed BJP’s action as “nothing but pretension".