On Monday Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda , announced that all party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will hold only small public meetings in the poll-bound state of West Bengal with a gathering of not more than 500 people.
The party said it aims to distribute six crore masks and sanitisers in West Bengal.
JP Nadda has instructed the party workers to start “Apna Booth – Corona Mukt” programme from Tuesday.
The BJP leaders will now hold only small public outreach programmes in open spaces, keeping Covid-19 protocol in mind.
The decision has been taken considering the prevailing Covid-19 situation.
BJP’s decision to not hold massive public rallies comes a day after TMC MP Derek O’Brien announced that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not campaign any further in Kolkata.
Amid rising Covid-19 cases in the state, the TMC supremo will only hold one ‘symbolic’ meeting on the last day of campaigning in the city on April 26, O’Brien had stated.
Additionally, all election rallies conducted by Mamata Banerjee in all districts of the state will not be longer than 30 minutes, he added.
Last week, Mamata Banerjee had appealed to the Election Commission (EC) to conduct the remaining three phases of the Bengal election in one go to “protect people from further exposure to Covid-19”.
However, BJP opposed the suggestion in a letter to the Election Commission. The BJP said the election should be held as per the original schedule to ensure a level-playing field for all candidates.
The assembly election in West Bengal is being held in eight phases. Polling for five phases is over and for the sixth phase, it is scheduled on April 22. So far, assembly polls have been held for 135 constituencies and the remaining 159 seats are set go to the polls between April 17 and 29.
