Delhi’s governing Aam Admi Party (Common Man’s Party AAP) has condemned the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for focusing and spending on a large-scale promotional campaign even as COVID-19 cases in the national capital scuttle towards the 200,000 mark at an alarming pace.
A video made viral by the Aam Admi Party shows scores of BJP workers wearing masks, gloves, and trademark saffron scarves around their necks engaging in door-to-door campaigning in the streets of Delhi, which will soon witness elections to the local municipal body.
The BJP Delhi unit's workers were apparently distributing a letter written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the nationwide "Jan Sampark Abhiyan” (public outreach mission) to highlight the achievements of his government that were recently completed in one year.
दिल्ली की जनता कोरोना से त्रस्त है, मगर भाजपा प्रचार में व्यस्त है। pic.twitter.com/y0Fxj8k8sA
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) June 10, 2020
Sharing a similar video, AAP slammed former President of BJP's Delhi chapter Manoj Tiwari for carrying out promotional work in full swing, accusing him of having no empathy for the public's pandemic fear.
ये @ManojTiwariMP हैं। पहचानते तो होंगे आप? उत्तर पूर्वी दिल्ली से सांसद भी हैं ये साहब।
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) June 10, 2020
दिल्ली भाजपा के 'पूर्व' अध्यक्ष हैं तो महामारी में भी भाजपा के प्रचार की जिम्मेदारी पूरी शिद्दत से निभा रहे हैं। pic.twitter.com/uBeP8G9hg0
The videos have caught immense public attention, as news reports suggest that Delhi is overloaded with COVID-19 cases and that the infected are forced to stand in long queues outside hospitals that are running out of beds and equipment. India's national capital Delhi and the western state of Gujarat are quickly catching up with Maharasthra, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, and running into five digits, making India the fifth most affected country in the world.
India has been witnessing a surge of 8,000-9,000 new COVID-19 cases every day. In Delhi alone, an average of 1,000 new cases per day has been reported during the last fortnight.
“Till June 15, there will be 44,000 Covid-19 cases and we would need 6,600 beds. We would hit one lakh cases and would require 15,000 beds by June 30. Till July 15, the cases would reach 250,00 and we would require 33,000 beds and till July 31, there will be 550,000 cases and we would need 80,000 beds”, Sisodia told the media.