India Covid-19: PM Modi Accused of Shifting Focus to Elections amid Covid Surge
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party has failed to secure a key state in elections held in the time the country is recording high Covid-19 deaths and cases.
Gathogo Wanjiru 
Prime Minister Modi has been accused of focusing on polls rather than the coronavirus pandemic following the BJP targeted West Bengal heavily during campaigning but it was comfortably held by the incumbent, Mamata Banerjee, a fierce Mr. Modi critic.
Elections were also conducted in Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala states as well as the territory of Puducherry. The party won in the north-eastern state of Assam but failed to make major gains elsewhere.
For almost the last two weeks, India’s daily cases have topped 300,000 where on Monday It recorded more than 360,000 new cases and 3,417 deaths.
On Sunday, India hit a new record for the daily number of Covid deaths after they recorded 3,689 people to have succumbed to the virus. Hospitals in the country are facing huge shortages of beds and oxygen.
Campaign rallies conducted in India have been blamed for the surge in Covid-19India. Prime Minister Modi and his home minister made a number of speeches in West Bengal and were accused of focusing on the elections rather than the coronavirus pandemic.
India has recorded more than 19 million positive cases of coronavirus, therefore, becoming the second-highest in the world from the US. India’s ministry of health has also confirmed more than 218,000 deaths, though the expert says the real toll is thought to be far higher.
Experts have blamed low testing rates and the high number of people dying at home, especially in rural areas, as contributing factors to under-reported figures.
