The Trinamul Congress on Thursday said if the Election Commission of India could hold eight-phase Bengal polls when the positive confirmation rate reached 33 per cent by Phase 8, there was no ground to withhold the pending Assembly bypolls when that rate came down to 1.5 per cent.
A delegation of six Trinamul MPs urged the commission’s full bench to declare the Bengal bypolls at once.
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“In April 2021, during which time polls were conducted in eights phases spread across the month, there was a steep rise in daily cases of Covid-19 in West Bengal. From the middle of April 2021, at the peak of elections, the daily cases rose from approximately 6,000 cases daily to 17,000 cases,” it wrote in its memorandum to the commission.