With eight days left in the results, Mamata is purposefully creating problems for the BJP, leaving West Bengal in the lurch

The incumbent West Bengal chief minister, who is faced with the prospect of being thrown out of power on May 2 has taken to blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Modi government for all the problems that India is currently faced with. Yet, when it comes to cooperating with the Centre to strengthen India’s fight against the pandemic, Mamata Banerjee conveniently decides to give meetings with no less than Prime Minister Modi a pass. Subsequently, she makes bizarre excuses for not attending such meetings. It has now become a regular feature and a boring one at that.

Essentially, such is the challenge which the BJP poses to Mamata Banerjee and the TMC in West Bengal, that the chief minister cannot spare a few hours from her campaign trail to attend a meeting with the Prime Minister and her colleagues from other states. This shows how politically drenched Banerjee is currently, where a public health crisis takes a backseat and all energies of the TMC supremo are focussed on somehow winning the election. Commenting on the Prime Minister’s meeting with various chief ministers, Mamata Banerjee claimed she was never invited for the same.

“I heard he is having some meeting today but we are not invited. I would definitely have attended it had I been invited. But I heard those 10 states which are worst affected have been called,” Banerjee said. Prima facie, this seems to be a lie, since West Bengal was represented during the meeting by its chief secretary, Alapan Bandyopadhyay. Effectively, this means that West Bengal is one of the high-burden Covid-inflicted states. What this also means is that Mamata Banerjee was most definitely invited to attend the meeting but chose not to.

Mamata Banerjee has been skipping meetings with the Prime Minister for quite some time now, citing the excuse of her being occupied with her campaign. Apart from skipping such crucial meetings and betraying the mandate of the people of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is also falsely accusing the BJP of a number of misdeeds. In a brazen show of mindlessness, the West Bengal chief minister on Friday claimed that the BJP was increasing the coronavirus cases across the country to win the Bengal election. She also alleged that the Centre’s negligence led to the rise of Covid-19 infections.

Apart from saying that the BJP was somehow increasing infections in the country, Banerjee also said that oxygen supplies meant for West Bengal were being diverted for the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh by the Modi government. “The supply chain is being maintained in BJP states. There are only 20,000 oxygen cylinders in the state. Where will we get oxygen from? The Central government wants to worsen the situation in Bengal,” Mamata said.

Read more: After CAA-NRC and Insider-Outsider card, Mamata now raises alarm over efficacy, supply and pricing of vaccines to win election

On the issue of vaccinations, after having questioned the efficacy and quality of vaccines only recently, Banerjee said that the Centre was favouring BJP-ruled states and was supplying them with large amounts of doses. “Gujarat has been given enough doses to vaccinate 60 per cent of its population. Other states are being allotted only enough doses to cover about 15 to 20 per cent of their population,” she said while addressing the media.

In all of Mamata Banerjee’s antics to blame the BJP for all that is going wrong with the state currently and temporarily ruled by her, the people of West Bengal are suffering. Perhaps it is due to this criminal negligence and indifference of Mamata Banerjee that the people of West Bengal are voting resoundingly in favour of the BJP.