Abhishek Banerjee news: Abhishek Banerjee vows to combat COVID-19 in his LS constituency with strict measures

Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary on Wednesday, vowed to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with renewed vigour, days after advocating the suspension of political programmes and religious meetings for two months. The Diamond Harbour MP said unique initiatives and strict measures would be taken in his constituency to control the spread of the disease, beginning with a thrust on sample examination.

“On Swami Vivekananda ji’s birth anniversary, with renewed energy, Diamond Harbour PC aims to fight #COVID19 by implementing unique initiatives & strict measures. 30,000 COVID tests to be done today!” Banerjee tweeted.

With Gangasagar Mela underway and civic polls to four municipal corporations slated for January 22, the TMC national general secretary’s remarks on halting political programmes had raised eyebrows last week.

“Abhishek Banerjee has said that political programmes and religious gatherings should be stopped for the next two months. The TMC government, however, has a different view on the issue. So what is the official stand of the TMC? There has to be some clarity,” Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya had said. BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya had also echoed Bhattacharya.

The TMC, on its part, stated that there was no contradiction.

“Why are only civic polls in Bengal being singled out? What about the assembly elections in five states? Preparations for civic polls and Gangasagar Mela had started long back. His (Abhishek’s) views will surely be taken into consideration hereon,” TMC MP Sougata Roy said.