Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee To Skip PM Modi's COVID-19 Review Meeting

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee will skip the chief minister's COVID-19 review meeting which will be held on Thursday, April 8 at 6:30 PM.

The meeting will be headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting aims to discuss the current COVID-19 situation across various states and the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Alapan Bandyopadhyay might attend the meeting in place of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

It is likely that West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay will attend the meeting in place of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

This isn't the first time when Mamata Banerjee has skipped the COVID-19 review meeting which was conducted on March 17 this year.  She didn't attend the meeting citing that she had to campaign for the West Bengal elections.

Mamata Banerjee might not attend the upcoming meeting as the campaigning for the West Bengal elections is still going on. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are engaged in fierce combat and aspire to defeat the other in the elections.

The voting for the Bengal elections has already commenced and will continue till April 29. The election is being conducted in eight phases, three of which have been already been conducted. The counting of the election votes will take place on May 2.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 situation has worsened as it recorded 1,26,789 new COVID-19 cases, which increased the total tally to 1,29,28,574.

Narendra Modi's second interaction with the chief ministers comes after the country crossed the 1-lakh mark three times in just four days. He is likely to address the issue regarding COVID-19 vaccine shortages, which has been brought by states such as Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. However, the centre has maintained that there have been no such shortages. They are also bound to discuss relaxing the age limit for taking the COVID-19 vaccine.