West Bengal: A picture went viral on the social networking platform whereby, BJP promoted itself through the virtual rally. Around 70,000 smart Television sets and 15000 LED screens were installed across West Bengal. The villagers gathered around to see the rally and watch the speech of the Home Minister, Amit Shah.
It has been estimated that the state has 78000 polling booths. The rally was held after the devastating cyclone ‘Amphan’ that killed many people. However, the Congress and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) criticized such promotion by saying that the party claimed to have trouble sending migrants to their hometown but had enough money to install televisions sets and LED TV screens in villages throughout Bengal. The Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) has claimed that around 144 crores had been spent on such TV sets that included the buying of TV sets either in wholesale rates or hired along with the transportation and the deployment charges. Also, one has to take up organizing skills as well.
The burden of transportation charge on the installation of each TV set has been overcome by entrusting the sets to the functionary party in certain districts. The TV sets were installed with the help of a bamboo grove. “People in remote villages of West Bengal listening to @AmitShah during #BJPJanSamvad. This is the reach @BJP4Bengal has achieved thru’ relentless pursuit for the last 5 years. People want better days,” said B L Santhosh, the National Secretary-General (Organisation) of BJP.
The party’s IT cell Chief, Amit Malviya said, “This is a defining image from Home Minister Amit Shah’s virtual rally in Bengal yesterday. People with modest means in the interiors of Bengal watched him live! Just to give a sense of the reach, the live feed on @BJP4Bengal’s Facebook page alone has been shared approx 32,000 times!”.
However, The BJP has claimed that though, they couldn’t have handled the pandemic in a better way but the opposition party was also a big failure.
The party attacked the West Bengal CM, Mamta Banerjee for being a ‘political refugee’ after election. The pandemic has affected the economy of the state.
Many doctors have claimed to resign from their jobs as they have not been paid for 3 months. “In the middle of a pandemic, healthcare workers of 4 hosp. & 17 polyclinics in Delhi haven’t been paid a single penny for 3 months. ‘People need us- so we kept working but now we find it tough to even commute to work as we have no money”, said a doctor who wants maintain his anonymity.