COVID-19: JP Nadda chairs meeting to review preparedness of election rallies in West Bengal

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national president JP Nadda on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public rallies in the new format (due to COVID-19) in poll bound state West Bengal. BJP has decided to hold only small public meetings with not more than 500 people in poll-bound West Bengal in view of the spike in COVID-19 cases across the country.

The party has suspended the big rallies and public meetings in view of the surge in COVID-19 cases. Polling is to be held in the remaining three of eight phases. "It has been decided that only small public meetings with not more than 500 people will be held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other union ministers in West Bengal. All these public meetings will be held in open spaces following COVID-19 guidelines," a BJP release said.

The party has set a target of the distribution of six crore masks and sanitisers in West Bengal. On the direction of party president JP Nadda, BJP will also open a dedicated COVID-19 helpdesk and COVID helpline in all states and start the campaign 'Apna Booth - Corona Mukt' (my booth, coronavirus free).

The first five phases of the eight-phase West Bengal Assembly elections have been completed. The sixth phase of the state assembly polls is scheduled for April 22. Polling for the seventh and the eighth phase will be held on April 26 and April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2. India reported 2,59,170 new COVID-19 infections and 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.