Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said he has canceled his scheduled poll rallies in West Bengal in view of increasing Covid-19 cases in the country.
He also urged other political leaders to suspend their election campaign amid rapid increase in the infection cases.
“In view of the Covid situation, I am suspending all my public rallies in West Bengal. I would advise all political leaders to think deeply about the consequences of holding large public rallies under the current circumstances,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
He has held only two rallies in the state so far and was scheduled to campaign in Malda and Murshidabad districts before the sixth phase of elections on April 22.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to take a dig at PM Modi, who praised the people of West Bengal for turning up in large numbers for his political rally on Saturday.
Addressing a rally in Asansol, PM Modi said he wanted to register a “complaint” against the people as he came to the city twice before, during the Lok Sabha elections, but had never before seen such a huge crowd.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has also accused the PM Modi of shocking callousness for holding big political rallies in poll-bound Bengal amid the rise in COVID-19 cases.
He said the prime minister should be at his job, sitting at his desk and coordinating with chief ministers in handling the COVID pandemic.
However, on Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah denied a link between elections and the surge in cases.
The Election Commission had last week wrote to all political parties and warned that it will “not hesitate in banning public meetings, rallies of defaulting candidates, star campaigners or political leaders” if COVID-19 guidelines were not followed during the remaining phases of elections in West Bengal.
Assembly elections have concluded for Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. In the eight-phase West Bengal elections, the last three rounds are still pending.
