BJP national president J P Nadda said no more than 500 people each will be allowed into Mr Modi and other BJP campaigners’ remaining poll rallies in Bengal amid the Covid surge.
Mr Modi will now visit Bengal on April 23 and address four rallies in Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum and south Kolkata. The original plan was to have these four rallies spread over two days –– on April 21 and April 24. BJP functionaries said that all rallies would follow Covid-prevention guidelines.
“We have set a target of distribution of 6 crore masks and sanitisers in West Bengal,” a senior BJP leader on Tuesday said.
Meanwhile, The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) submitted a memorandum to West Bengal state election commission requesting them to club together phases 6, 7 and 8 of the ongoing West Bengal polls.Earlier, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced she will not hold any big rallies in Kolkata, except for one meeting in north Kolkata next Monday.
Ms Banerjee also said she will hold fewer rallies in the districts. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, too, has suspended his planned rallies in West Bengal.The chief minister urged the poll body “not to play with people’s lives”.
Arguing that the eight-phase plan was to accommodate Prime Minister’s Bengal campaign schedule on April 23, Ms Banerjee appealed that “if the last three phases cannot be held in one day, let it be held on two days”.However, the chief minister said the EC’s efforts to regulate campaign timings will help to contain the Covid spike.(UNI)
