Vijayvargiya Shoots off Letter to Mamata, Alleges TMC of Fudging up Covid-19 Death Count

BJP's West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya has shot off a 6-page letter to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of "manipulating death counts" due to Covid-19.

The subject of the letter reads - "Manipulating the reporting of death count due to coronavirus in West Bengal, confrontationist attitude with Honourable Governor and the central government and high handedness against BJP leaders".

The letter comes days after Mamata Banerjee tried to block the inter ministerial team sent by the Centre to the state to assess the ground situation as far as tackling the Coronavirus is concerned.

Vijayvargiya said, "On one hand, the people of West Bengal are suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, you have been playing dirty politics."

The BJP leader, in a no holds barred accusation, charged the TMC-led government with "abject failure". "Your behaviour is not geared up towards making things better in West Bengal. To the contrary, your behaviour is making things much worse in the state," alleged BJP general secretary while mentioning the Bengal government versus the IMCT saga.

He alleged that the TMC-led government is manipulating COVID death counts. "Is human death mere statistics to you? The day when you announced 18 deaths in West Bengal, your officers admitted in front of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) sent by the central government that the real number was 57," Vijayvargiya wrote to her.

He even raised the issue of a viral video of Tuesday where police personnel were seen being attacked by a mob in Howrah district, one of the worst affected in the state. He alleged that the attackers belonged to a particular faith and the perceived inaction is due to the "vote bank politics". "It is high time that you stop the vote bank politics and immediately act against those who attacked the police force," he demanded.

The letter also raked up other incidents of violence or attacks. He also raised the issue of public spat between the Bengal Governor and the Chief Minister.

Calling the testing in the state "shamefully inadequate", he compared Bengal's low testing with Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and even Andhra Pradesh. By giving a state specific break ups on confirmed cases and deaths, Vijayvargiya claimed Bengal's neighbouring states fare way better than it.