The Congress on Monday hoped Prime Minister Narendra Modi would attend to his primary duty of governance instead of devoting all his time and energy campaigning for Bengal elections when the second coronavirus wave is rampaging through the country.

The Prime Minister’s obsession with the Bengal polls dominated the massive social media campaign for vaccines run by the Congress on Monday.

Wondering how the Prime Minister could be engrossed in electioneering when over a lakh new Covid cases are emerging every day, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said: “The Prime Minister should have set up a war room with medical experts and top administrators to strategise for Covid management. But the war room is for Bengal. The Prime Minister is addressing three rallies in Bengal today (Monday). Even home minister Amit Shah is there.”

The party also highlighted the export of over six crore doses at a time India has not vaccinated all its health and frontline workers and persons with comorbidities.

Many senior leaders blasted the government for playing with the lives of people with its casual approach to Covid’s second wave that has made India the country with the second largest number of infections in the world.

The Congress spokesperson said: “People elected him to govern, they presumed the Prime Minister will rise to the occasion to help people in crisis. What has Modi done to expand vaccine production? There are 13 vaccines available in the world; has the Prime Minister talked to those manufacturers for making them available in India? Has he any concern for the people? When will Bengal election end?”

Many other leaders alleged that Modi was driven by a lust for power and hoped he would get serious about the national crisis after polling ends in Bengal.

Most leaders pointed at the government’s failure in bolstering the healthcare infrastructure after the severe Covid shock last year and its decision to export and gift vaccines to other countries, arguing that Modi was more concerned about refurbishing his own image than the lives of Indians.

As reports suggested that the government was considering approving Russian vaccine Sputnik, the Congress pounced on Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who had slammed Rahul Gandhi for urging the government to grant permission to other vaccines.

Rahul himself put out a video saying: “Modi ji, you said the war against corona will be won in 18 days. You asked people to bang thali, light up candles and show mobile phone torch… but corona intensified. Please stop event-bazi now and arrange for vaccines for all. And provide income support to the poor.”

Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote another letter to the Prime Minister on Monday, expressing concern over vaccine shortage and economic disruption affecting the poor in the aftermath of a surge in Covid cases.

She said: “Vaccines are our foremost hope. Sadly, most of the states are left with a stock of just three to five days. While it will be necessary on one hand to substantially ramp up our domestic production capacity, it will also be prudent to allow emergency use authorisation of all the vaccine candidates that have the required clearances without any further delay.”

Sonia added: “Accordingly, with enhanced availability, categories eligible for vaccination should be expanded on the basis of need and exposure rather than just age. In the same vein, the numbers allocated to a state has to be based on the prevalence and projection of infection in that particular state. All equipment, instruments, medicine and support infrastructure required to deal with Covid-19 crisis should be made completely exempt from GST. Even ventilators, oximeters and oxygen cylinders currently attract GST as do key life-saving drugs like Remdesivir and Dexamethazone.”

Drawing attention to the restrictions and lockdowns being imposed in many parts of the country, she said: “We will again be restricting economic activity that will hit the already beleaguered people — especially the poor and daily wage earners very hard. It is with all earnestness that I appeal to you to put into place the much needed scheme of minimum monthly guaranteed income in place and transfer an amount of Rs 6,000 in every eligible citizen’s account.”

She also sought measures for transportation of migrant labourers as reverse migration had already started.