Mahua Moitra Slams Election Commission For 8 Phase Polls In West Bengal Amid Covid Surge
West Bengal, 15 April 2021 – TMC MP Mahua Moitra has attacked the Election Commission over polling amid the surge in COVID cases. It is certainly criminal negligence bordering on manslaughter on part of the Election Commission. She says, to mandate an eight-phase election in West Bengal in the middle of the worst pandemic. Unbelievable that we are being put through these infections, Death rising every single day.
Concerns have been raised by various people about the election process in general but TMC has been talking about the eight-phase polling, which they’ve been upset about right in the very beginning.
At this point, four phases are already done. We are heading towards a fifth phase, but it’s a blistering attack coming in from the Trinamool Congress leadership Mahua Moitra, of course, saying that this amounts to manslaughter. And she is of course challenging the Election Commission’s decision to hold the election in eight phases. Trinamool Congress, Rajya Sabha MP, and party spokesperson Derek O’Brien has also gone on to tweet that, the party did not want eight-phase elections.
And this of course comes at a time when we suddenly see a massive surge in COVID cases across the country. There is an acute shortage of vaccines in certain areas as well. And as far as Bengali is concerned in all the districts, as far as the latest that is coming in all districts of West Bengal, there has been a surge in COVID cases. And the worry, of course, is that a greater Kolkata and Kolkata is here to vote, they are going to vote in the last two phases, areas like North 24 Parganas, because over the past one year, what we saw was Kolkata and not North 24 Parganas, these were the worst affected areas as far as COVID cases in West Bengal is concerned.
Now suddenly, we are seeing once again a spike in COVID cases. We are already nearing the 5000 COVID case per day mark. Yesterday, it was around 4900 cases more than that. So within just one week, we are seeing from 3000 odd cases per day to about close to 5000 cases per day. And that is extremely worrying. And even as we say this, even as a Trinamool Congress lashes out of the election commission over his decision to hold 8 phases election.
The state is not even testing. The state is not even vaccinating well enough to protect the people. Where are the tests for proper diagnosis then to control the surge in cases in the state of West Bengal? There is data that seems to suggest that the surge in poll-bound West Bengal in terms of the total number of cases has been over 196%. Yes, that’s right. That is the kind of surge that West Bengal is seen.
