Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that he will be suspending all his public rallies in West Bengal amid the surge in coronavirus cases. He urged all political leaders to not hold public rallies in the current situation.
He tweeted, “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.”
West Bengal, which has an eight phased assembly election, has seen a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases. On Saturday, the state concluded the fifth phase of polling in which it registered over 78 per cent voter turnout.
In order to contain the surge in Covid-19 cases, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to curtail the timing for the campaign for the remains three phases and has extended the silence period to 72 hours for each of the phases.
The EC, in its order also said that no rallies, public meetings will be allowed on any days during the campaigning days between 7 pm and 10 am.
The order read, “Silence period for rallies, public meetings, street plays, nukkad sabha, bike rallies or any gathering for campaigning purposes shall be extended to 72 hours before the end of the poll for Phase 6, Phase 7 and Phase 8 in the State of West Bengal.”
West Bengal, in the last 24 hours, reported 7,713 cases pushing the state’s total to 6,51,508 cases. The active cases stand at 45,300.
India, in the last 24 hours recorded the biggest daily surge in cases with 2,61,500 new coronavirus cases taking the caseload to 1.47 crore and 1,501 deaths which is the highest single-day death count pushing the death toll to 1,77,150.