Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has cancelled his Tirupati bypoll campaign scheduled for April 14 in view of the likely spread of COVID-19.
In a letter to the electorate on Saturday, Mr. Jagan said he decided to call off his tour as the number of COVID cases had been increasing rapidly.
According to the latest bulletin, 2,765 new COVID cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 8.67%, which was higher than the national rate of 5.87%.
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Tirupati Parliamentary constituency, which is spread across Chittoor and Nellore districts, recorded a big spike in the last few days.
Of the 2,765 positive cases in the State, 496 cases were registered in Chittoor and 292 cases in Nellore districts. Of the 11 people who died of COVID, four were from Chittoor and Nellore districts.
“As the public meeting will attract huge crowds, there is every danger of a spurt in the number of cases there. As a responsible Chief Minister and leader, I resolved to cancel the April 14 meeting,” Mr. Jagan stated.
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He appealed to the voters to give a mandate to his party candidate M. Gurumoorthy with a margin higher than the one recorded in the previous election.