Covid pandemic hampered BJP's prospects in Bengal polls, says Nadda

The second wave of Covid-19 in 2021 hampered BJP's prospects in the Assembly elections in West Bengal, the partys national President J.P. Nadda said here on Thursday.

"In the last four phases of the eight-phase polls, our party could campaign properly. We went for the polls in the last four phases almost without any campaign because of the pandemic. Otherwise, the results of the elections could have been different considering the pace in which we were moving ahead," Nadda said while addressing a citizen's convention here on Thursday.

However, he added that the winds of change is blowing in West Bengal.

"I believe that those on the wrong side cannot sustain for a long time and those on the right path cannot be stopped for long," he said.

Nadda also read out reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to highlight the 'deteriorating' law and order situation in the state.

Reacting to Nadda's remark, Trinamool Congress spokesman Kunal Ghosh termed it as a lame excuse, saying BJP was not the only party whose campaigning process was hampered because of the pandemic.

"Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had requested multiple times to reduce the number of phases for the polls in the backdrop of the looming second wave of Covid-19. But it was the BJP which kept on pressing for eight- phase elections. Now that the people of the state have rejected the BJP, such excuses are really funny," he said.