BJP asks Mamata not to resort to vote bank politics in fight against COVID-19

Kolkata,04 April(HS): Senior BJP leader and the party’s Central Observer Kailash Vijaybargiya has charged the Mamata Banerjee government in  West Bengal with allegedly resorting to ‘vote bank politics’ even at this critical time and urged the Chief Minister to ‘fully cooperate’ with the Central government in its fight against COVID-19 instead of criticising it on every issue.

‘It has now become a norm of the Chief Minister and her government to find fault in every decision taken by the Central government and in spite of its all-out efforts to contain the deadly virus, which was hailed by none other than the World Health Organisation(WHO), she has been trying to find fault ‘, Vijaybargiys said and claimed that it would do no good to anybody.

Expressing his utter surprise at Mamata Banerjee’s decision not to attend the nationwide video conference of the Prime minister with the Chief minister of every state on 2 April and instead sending the state Chief Secretary (Rajiva Sinha) to represent the state,the BJP leader said with her absence it was obvious that she was resorting to  the vote bank politics even at this hour of national crisis when there was an urgent need for every state to face the danger unitedly and fight  it accordingly.

About the Chief minister’s allegation that the West Bengal government was not getting the necessary financial and other assistance from the Centre despite her repeated appeal to the Prime minister including her latest demand for emergency assistance of Rs 25,000 crores, Vijaybargiya said while on one hand, she had been demanding such huge central assistance, on the other she decided to stay away from such an important one on one meeting with the Prime minister where she could make her appeal upfront. This is ridiculous, he said.

About the Chief minister;s sharp and non committal reaction earlier yesterday about the Prime minister’s appeal for lighting candles and torches for 9 minutes from 9 p.m. tomorrow, the senior BJP leader said  the people of this vast country had already showed their solidarity in fighting the Corona virus and they would do it once again tomorrow. ‘We have no objection if she prefers to go on sleep at that early night’, he said jokingly referring to her remarks in this connection.