Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has cancelled his public rally slated for 14 April at Tirupati ahead of the bypoll for the Lok Sabha seat citing the increasing number of new cases of Covid- 19 in Chittoor and Nellore districts, just a day after he wrote to PM Narendra Modi seeking more vaccines to mark “Tika Utsav”, a Central programme to ramp up vaccination, successfully.

Reaching out to his voters in yet another letter Reddy announced his decision to cancel the rally as a “responsible CM” because health and happiness of his people were of utmost importance to him while urging them to vote for his candidate in the bypoll on 17 April.

Although polls are being held in four states and a union territory along with bypolls in several states this is the first time a political leader chose to cancel his campaign due to the pandemic. In fact political leaders and cadres of various parties have come under fire for blatantly ignoring Covid-19 norms by holding huge gatherings.

According to the health bulletin the cases have been rising in the state rapidly with two districts Chittoor and Nellore across which the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat is spread, recording a massive spike in the past few days.

Among the 2,765 fresh cases in the state Chittoor recorded 496 cases while Nellore came up with 292 cases. Again among the 11 fatalities four are from these two districts. Mentioning the above statistics CM Reddy wrote: “ Out of wanting to show affection and love scores of citizens could turn up at my public meeting if I decide to go ahead with it. All these are my people. Their health and happiness is of utmost importance for me.”

The YSRCP chief had earlier written to individual families residing within the constituency listing out the various social welfare schemes introduced by his government and availed by the respective families while urging them to vote for the YSRCP candidate Dr Gurumurthy.

Yesterday, the CM had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to urgently send another 25 lakh vaccine doses to successfully undertake “Tika Utsav” to be celebrated between 11 April and 14 April. The CM chose to write to the Prime minister after officials informed him that the state currently held a stock two lakh doses and another two lakh was expected.