KOLKATA: Chief minister
Mamata Banerjee on Thursday urged the
Election Commission to consider holding the remaining election phases in one go in view of the huge surge in
Covid cases, saying it would protect people from further exposure to the virus, and adding that she had initially “firmly opposed” the EC’s decision to conduct the polls in eight phases.
Her plea came on a day Rezaul Haque alias
Mantu Biswas, 46, the Congress candidate from Shamsherganj, Murshidabad, succumbed to the disease at a Kolkata hospital, and at a time when several other politicians — from a number of parties — have been infected. Bengal itself has continued to record huge spikes in daily cases since late-March, coinciding with the commencement of the eight-phase polls.
Earlier in the day, before Banerjee made this plea from her official Twitter handle, she told a private TV channel that to “keep people safe”, as a “political party and as a human being”, she would agree to any decision by the EC to club the last three phases of the polls in one day, but parties should be allowed seven to eight days’ campaign time.
“The next phase of polls are on Saturday. But the scheduled polls on April 22, 26 and 29 can be held on one day. I have no problem,” she said in response to a question.
Immediately after the CM’s appeal, the Trinamool Congress urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to clear their stand on the issue. Party MP Derek O’Brien tweeted: “Come on, Modi-Shah BJP. We have made our stand clear. What’s yours? More #COVID19India deaths in 4 phases.”
In the interview, Banerjee said: “At the onset, let me be very clear that we did not find any justification for an eight-phase poll. We had opposed that. Bihar elections were held during a pandemic, even then it was held in three phases. There was no need (for an eight phase poll in Bengal).... As a political party, as a human, we have no problem if the last three phases are held in one day. But we should be allowed a seven-eight-day window to campaign for all the remaining phases. It can be held around April 26 in one go.... Places where cases are higher will go to polls last.” As many as 114 assembly segments are scheduled to go to the polls in the last three phases of the elections. This includes Kolkata, which will vote in the last two phases.
Banerjee also questioned the Centre’s management of the pandemic. “The (Covid) cases were showing a gradual decline since last November. They (the Centre) had five months to arrange for vaccines. It is common knowledge that a pandemic remains for at least two years,” she said, adding, “I have written to the Centre to help us with the vaccines. We wanted to purchase vaccines and vaccinate all people. I am not saying this would have made the disease go away, but the cases would have been much lower. What happened to the PM-Cares fund?”
Senior Trinamool Congress MPs Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra had taken to Twitter earlier in the day to strongly question the eight-phase polls. The MPs did not explicitly speak on clubbing the final phases, which the CM did later. O’Brien, tweeted: “The TWO will say, let people die. But don’t do anything to thwart our blind ambition of ‘winning Bengal’.” In another post, he said: “We did NOT want an 8 Phase election in the first place.” Moitra said: “It is certainly criminal negligence bordering on manslaughter on part of the Election Commission to mandate 8 phase election in West Bengal in the middle of a worst pandemic. Unbelievable that we are being put through this. Infections, deaths rising everyday.”
The CM, during her interview, repeated her allegations that BJP was bringing in several thousand people from other states for the Bengal polls, which was causing the spike in cases.
Banerjee’s statements came a day before Bengal chief electoral officer Ariz Aftab is scheduled to meet all political parties after the Calcutta High Court directed the CEO and DMs to strictly adhere to Covid norms during electioneering. The Left Front has already said it would avoid large public meetings.