New Delhi, Apr 19 (IANS): Concerned with the rising case of Covid, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday decided not to hold big rallies in poll bound West Bengal.

The party has decided to hold small public meetings of not more than 500 people to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior central leaders.

In a statement the BJP said that all these small public meetings will be organised in open spaces following all the Covid guidelines."Assembly polls in West Bengal are going on and the completion of this constitutional and democratic process is also very important.

"Keeping this in mind, the BJP Chief J P Nadda, has decided that only in West Bengal small public meetings of all the central leaders including the Prime Minister ANarendra Modi will be held in which not more than 500 persons will be allowed to attend," the BJP said in a statement.

The BJP said it has decided to stop big rallies in West Bengal as it is much needed to break the chain of Covid infections.

Yesterday former Congress president Rahul Gandhi cancelled his political rallies in West Bengal. After Gandhi's announcement,the Trinamool Congress announced that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not be campaigning in Kolkata and she has also decided to hold rallies for not more than 30 minutes in other districts.

Of the eight phases of West Bengal Assembly, polling has taken place in five phases and voting for eight and final phase will take place on April 29. Counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly will take place on May 2.

On Sunday, Nadda held a virtual meeting of the party national office bearers and state unit presidents to discuss the growing cases of Corona in the country.

The BJP Chief asked them to start the campaign of "Apna Booth Corona Mukt" (My Booth Corona Free) and make it a success.

Nadda also directed all state units of the BJP should immediately set up a 'Corona Helpdesk' and also start a 'Corona Helpline' to help the people in their states.