Kolkata: West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh has declared that the coronavirus pandemic is over and the Mamata Banerjee-led state government is unnecessarily imposing lockdown to stop the BJP from holding rallies with elections only a few months away.
"Corona chole gechhe (Coronavirus is gone). Didimoni (Mamata Banerjee) is just pretending and imposing lockdowns so that the BJP can't organise meetings and rallies in the state. No one can stop us," Ghosh said at a public rally in Dhaniakhali area in Hooghly district on Wednesday. The video has gone viral on social media.
Ghosh's statement comes after the COVID-19 death toll in the state rose to 3,771 after 41 more patients succumbed to the disease on Thursday. The coronavirus cases tally also mounted to 1,93,175 after 3,112 people, including Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma, tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has slammed Ghosh for his statement.
Taking to Twitter, TMC said, "While the whole of India is still fighting tirelessly against the deadly #COVID19 pandemic, @DilipGhoshBJP announces "Corona is Over"! "Evidently, he values vote bank politics much above human lives. The wit of @BJP4Bengal President is horrifying!" the party added.
Reacting to Ghosh's "corona is gone" statement, AAP wrote, "Gone where?"
Meanwhile, India saw a record single-day spike of 96,551 infections and 1,209 fatalities taking India's COVID-19 caseload past 45 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry on Friday.
The total case tally stands at 45,62,415 including 9,43,480 active cases, 35,42,664 cured/discharged/migrated and 76,271 deaths.
India now is the second worst-hit country after the US, with 45.6 million COVID-19 cases since the first was reported on January 30.
