Covid politics takes centre stage in Bengal

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blames Centre for failing to manage the Covid second wave.

Kolkata: As the country reels under Covid pandemic, in West Bengal, politics seems to be deciding the state’s response to the crisis. Like previous years, this time, too, a blame game is in full swing.

Now at the midway of elections, Covid politics seems to be the centerpiece all over.

Last year in West Bengal, this issue reached a flashpoint after the Central government sent teams to assess the situation. The teams were to visit certain “hotspots” to take stock of the way things were. Mamata Banerjee was very vocal against this visit. She complained to Prime Minister Modi that the team had arrived in Kolkata unannounced. The state government was not ready to help the Central team. That was the beginning.

Thereafter, time and again, the state government allegedly not only opposed the central guidelines regarding Covid management, but to make matters worse, data was manipulated as well. The Chief Minister had announced that the decision regarding classification of “Covid-19 death” shall be decided by an expert audit committee which shall “rule out death due to comorbidities”. After one year, Mamata Banerjee has again gone for an all-out attack against the Central government. This time, she is playing the victim card. After the fifth  phase, she has brought back Covid management as an issue in the West Bengal elections. She is attacking PM Modi relentlessly in every rally of hers as well as in her press conferences as she desperately tries to make Covid an election issue. From the first phase to the fourth, Mamata Banerjee was at the receiving end. She had to counter BJP’s attack about her alleged non-performance. Now, she is trying to be back on her front foot again citing the Central government’s failure to manage the second wave of Covid effectively.

While BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya launched an attack on the West Bengal government on Twitter, saying that Mamata Banerjee has a problem with all Central decisions and that this is a misinformation campaign, as usual, Mamata Banerjee is expecting her petty politicking shall trump all. However, this time, when the TMC accuses the BJP of playing politics over health, the saffron party has rather effectively countered Mamata Banerjee for politicising Covid instead.