Too Little, Too Late? With Just 2 Phases Left, PM Modi Cancels West Bengal Rallies

In a rather belated move, the Prime Minister took to Twitter to announce the cancellation of his visits to West Bengal, which has a couple of phases of voting remaining

PM Modi Thursday canceled his scheduled poll rallies in West Bengal tomorrow and said that he will hold high-level meetings to assess to COVID-19 situation in the country.

In a rather belated move, the Prime Minister took to Twitter to announce the cancellation of his visits to West Bengal, which has a couple of phases of voting remaining. He was scheduled to address four rallies tomorrow, and with no future rallies in Bengal scheduled, this has effectively brought his campaign to an end.

Tomorrow, will be chairing high-level meetings to review the prevailing COVID-19 situation. Due to that, I would not be going to West Bengal.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 22, 2021

Notably, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi have also canceled all their rallies amid the alarming spike in coronavirus cases across the country. The BJP, a couple of days back, had decided to limit its gatherings to 500 people, with President JP Nadda asking party workers to ensure the distribution of 60 million sanitizers and masks in West Bengal.

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Political parties across the spectrum have been guilty of breaching COVID-19 protocols repeatedly by organizing large rallies without masks and social distance. The Election Commission, on its part, warned parties repeatedly to adhere to restrictions while campaigning.

India recorded 3,14,835 cases and 2401 deaths on Thursday, a single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. Meanwhile, West Bengal saw a steep spike with 10000 cases and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours.