KOLKATA: Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said ‘‘coronavirus is gone’’ and Mamata Banerjee was only pretending the virus is around and imposing lockdown for the sole purpose of blocking BJP rallies in poll-bound West Bengal. The saffron camp’s Bengal chapter chief made the statement at a time when the country is hitting record spikes in Covid-19 positive cases as the number of new infected cases crossed 96,500 in last 24 hours.
‘‘Corona chole gechhe (Coronavirus is gone). Didimoni (Mamata Banerjee) is pretending and imposing lockdown with only one goal that is now allowing the BJP to organise meetings and rallies in the state before the next year’s elections. No one can stop us. Where BJP stands, meeting and rallies start from there,’’ said Ghosh while addressing a rally on Thursday in Dhaniakhali in Hooghly.
India has already crossed 45 lakh Covid-19 cases with 96,551 new cases of infections, a record till date. West Bengal already recorded more than 3,700 death and reports of 3,000 new Covid-19 positive cases are recorded on an average every day.
Ghosh’s comments drew flak on several occasions but the BJP state chief was found continuing headlines with his remarks.
Taking a jibe at Ghosh, Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee said, ‘’He must go to a doctor. I have no doubt he has got something wrong with his brain. Otherwise, no one could think what he said publicly.’’