Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spent the first 10 minutes of her election campaign rally in Malda on Tuesday urging people to either cover their heads or move under shades — including the area around the dais from where she was addressing — so that they did not have to stand under the blazing Sun.
"It is too hot today, and it is really painful for you all.... The summer is harsher this time. I would like to ask you to cover your head with any piece of clothing that you have. I will request the police to open this D-zone (security zone) and let those women standing under the sun come inside so that they get some shade," said Mamata during her first of the two meetings in Malda.
Although politics ruled the discourse in all the major rallies —addressed by leaders of different political parties — in the poll season, the present heat wave condition in the state featured prominently in the addresses of political leaders who addressed eight major political programmes in Malda, East Burdwan, Birbhum, West Burdwan, Murshidabad, and South 24-Parganas.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who addressed a campaign rally on Tuesday afternoon in East Burdwan's Memari, thanked the people for coming in large numbers despite the scorching heat in the district, where the mercury hovered around 45 degrees Celsius.
"I want to thank you for coming in such large numbers and waiting for hours to bless our candidate Asim Sarkar amid this scorching 45-degrees Celsius temperature," said Shah before ending his around half-hour speech in Memari.
On Tuesday, Kalaikunda in West Midnapore recorded the highest temperature — 47.2 degrees Celsius. In Malda and East Burdwan — where Mamata and Shah attended their rallies — the mercury was between 43 degrees and 45 degrees Celsius.
Apart from Mamata and Shah, leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, CPM state secretary Md. Salim and Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury addressed multiple rallies in different parts of the state.
To make matters worse for the political parties, the met office in Calcutta issued a statement with the warning of a heatwave in the state till May 4.
In this extreme weather condition, holding rallies would become very difficult, ground-level rally organisers, cutting across political parties, said in private.
"The common people are urging us not to request them to attend campaign rallies as they have to spend at least five to six hours under the blazing Sun.... As it is painful to stay under the Sun for hours, we have decided not to push any supporter into attending more than one rally a week," said a senior BJP leader in East Burdwan, who arranged 3,000 people for Shah's rally.
"You should keep in mind that apart from rallies by the big leaders, we are arranging small-scale public meetings locally... It is indeed unfair to push people into attending the rallies," he added.
A Trinamool leader said that the rally attendees, under the extreme heat condition, are coming up with various legitimate demands — like cold water, shaded areas in rally venues, covered vehicles instead of trucks and matadors — and the party is trying its best to cater to them.
"Our expenses increased many fold for hiring cars, instead of trucks and matadors.... But we are trying our best to make the necessary arrangements as our senior leaders do not want people to suffer in the polling season," said a BJP leader in Birbhum where Yogi Adityanath attended one of the three rallies.
The union leaders are facing a challenge to arrange adequate "cold' drinking water.
"If any leader brings 100 people from his area, he has to bear the cost of at least 300 water bottles as most of them are consuming more water. The challenge is everyone wants cold water," said a Trinamool leader in Malda.
