BJP leader Amit ShahThe BJP, which has missed Amit Shah’s addresses at election rallies in Bihar, is now eagerly waiting for his visit to West Bengal. Shah is expected to reach Bengal, where polls are due next year, on Thursday — a visit that state BJP leaders hope would boost the party’s preparations for the key elections next year. During the two-day visit Shah is scheduled to have several rounds of meeting with party workers and leaders from two zones — Rarh and Hooghly-Midnapore — in the southern region of the state.
No Joint Show
On his last day of campaigning in Bihar on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to address a press conference in Patna. The idea was to have a joint media interaction with RJD leader, and the Opposition alliance’s CM face, Tejashwi Yadav. But the interaction was cancelled. Some leaders say the schedule of Tejashwi, who is on a whirlwind campaign tour, did not match, while some others say a section of Congress leaders did not want any diversion from the Bihar-specific campaign that the party and RJD is waging, and a Rahul presser could have resulted in deviation from that strategy.
Keeping Promise
In last week’s briefing on Covid-19, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, while replying to a question, had made a passing mention about the extensive use of the Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) platform in training coronavirus warriors, and in reaching out the last mile. However, Bhushan said that he would talk about it in detail the following week. On Tuesday, Bhushan kept his promise. After making the presentation during this week’s briefing on the Covid-19 situation, he went the extra time out and ensured a brief presentation on iGOT. He said that nearly 13.60 lakh unique users used the platforms, and the top 50 districts with the highest course completions are from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, and Chandigarh.