Trinamool Congress reminds people of the promise made by the BJP to provide free Covid vaccine to all in Bihar last year.
Soon after the BJP made a promise to make Covid-19 vaccines free for everyone if voted to power in West Bengal, the ruling TMC made it a point to refresh people’s memory of how the party made a similar promise made to Bihar residents just before the state polls last year and conveniently “forgot” it.
The TMC promised free vaccine on Thursday through a tweet, “Free universal vaccination for everyone above the age of 18 post 5 May.” On Friday, the BJP tweeted: “As soon as BJP government comes to power in West Bengal, Covid-19 vaccine will be provided free of cost to everyone.”
Taking to Twitter, TMC wrote: “Here comes the free vaccine JUMLA announcement from Bharatiya Jumlebaaz Party @BJP4Bengal! A similar promise was made by them to fool people in Bihar before elections, which they have conveniently forgotten. Bengal won’t be fooled.”
Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala tweeted, “What about rest of India, who have to pay Rs 1,200 per person (Rs 600 2 dosages) for #vaccine! Stop befooling people!”
The TMC MP Derek O’Brien shared a video clip in which he said, “BJP’s free vaccine jumla… It’s elections… two phases to go in Bengal. And Remember what BJP did in Bihar? They announced during the election free vaccines. Nothing happened. Elections finished, they forgot. Free vaccine jumla, vaccines for all in Bengal, don’t believe the BJP, don’t trust the BJP.”
In October last year, when the nation was battling the first wave of the pandemic, the BJP, while campaigning for Bihar assembly polls, had promised to vaccinate people in the state for free if voted to power. The BJP-JD(U) alliance won the polls and formed the government with Nitish Kumar as its Chief Minister.
On Wednesday, the Bihar government announced to provide free Covid vaccination to all above 18 years of age, thereby extending the facility provided to other categories of state residents so far. “The state government will provide free vaccine jabs to all the residents of the state above 18 years of age starting from 1 May,” Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tweeted. Till now, the state government has been vaccinating its natives above 45 years of age free of cost in government and designated private hospitals across the state, news agency PTI reported.