A crisis of oxygen cylinders in Maharashtra cast its shadow on the ongoing polls with the Trinamul Congress accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ignoring the pandemic-induced health emergency and focus on winning the Bengal polls.
“Maharashtra CM @OfficeofUT called Modi requesting for urgent supply of oxygen for his State. Was informed that PM busy campaigning in Bengal. Will respond on his return,” tweeted O’Brien on Saturday while polling for the fifth phase covering 45 Assembly seats was on.
According to sources, in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has called the Prime Minister’s Office thrice but could not speak to him.The Covid crisis in Maharashtra is growing into a full-blown standoff between the state and the centre.
The NCP leader and Maharashtra minister, Nawab Malik, alleged the Centre had instructed the pharma companies not to supply medicines to the state.
“It is sad and shocking that when Government of Maharashtra asked the 26 export companies for Remdesivir, we were told that Central Government has asked them not to supply the medicine to Maharashtra. These companies were warned, if they did, their license will be cancelled,” tweeted Malik.
“This is a dangerous precedent and under these circumstances, Maharashtra government will have no choice but to seize the stock of Remdesivir from these exporters and supply it to the needy,” he wrote in another tweet.
On Saturday, Modi called for a “symbolic” Kumbh mela in Haridwar where the restriction went for a toss for religious pandering.
The Centre-Maharashtra standoff could have a bearing on the aftermath of the Bengal poll results. When the Maharashtra Assembly polls were held in 2019, the BJP and the Shiv Sena were alliance partners. Early one morning in October, the former chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, had even taken oath, but the Sena in a post-poll coalition with the Congress and the NCP, trumped Modi and Shah to form a government headed by Uddhav Thackeray.
The Mahavikas Agadhi government has since been a thorn in the BJP’s crown. A similar scenario might unfold in Bengal if none of the parties get a clear majority, which is possible on paper.
By raising its voice in favour of Shiv Sena, the Trinamul is trying to keep the non-BJP governments in other states by its side, in case the BJP makes any attempts to snatch power through the back door as it did in Bihar, Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh.
The Maharashtra crisis also helps the Opposition to target Modi for neglecting the needs of the people as it is with the agitating farmers in Delhi and now the Corona crisis that has hit hard even his home state Gujarat.
On Saturday, Modi had two election campaign meetings scheduled in Asansol and Gangarampur, while Amit Shah held a roadshow in North 24-Pargana in Amdanga and held two public meetings at Chapra and Ausgram.
Despite the global pandemic and a spike in Covid cases across the country in the past few weeks that have rendered both hospitals, crematoriums and burial grounds inadequate to deal with the volume of the ailing and the dead, the Election Commission has continued with the unprecedented eight-phase polling in Bengal.
After Saturday, three more phases are to go, and the results will be declared on May 2.
At an all-party meeting on Friday, the central poll panel announced restricting poll campaign from 7pm onwards, though the measure will have limited impact, as crowds will remain on the streets for the day endangering lives.
The other political parties had criticised the central poll panel’s decision to hold elections in eight-phases as it helped the BJP utilise all of its resources in the poll campaign.
The CPM had announced it would not hold any big meetings as part of the campaign but there have been reports of large gatherings in some of the meetings.