Videos of the tournament final showed spectators running to the pitch to celebrate
Gujarat BJP MLA Saurabh Patel today shared videos of a night cricket tournament organised by his party and attended by hundreds - most without masks and no adherence to social distancing rules. This as the country is reporting a rise in daily cases of coronavirus fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The MLA, however, defended the tournament saying there are no Covid cases in Botad - his constituency - currently, where the tournament was held. He also said the tournament was launched nearly a month ago when the number of cases was negligible.
Videos of the tournament final, played on Christmas between two wards on the grounds of a government high school, showed spectators, many without masks, running to the pitch as part of victory celebrations.
Former India cricketer Munaf Patel, along with the MLA, handed over the tournament trophies.
Except for the final, very few people had turned up in the other matches and all Covid rules were followed during them, the MLA said, adding that 140 teams from his Assembly took part in the tournament.
"There weren't so many people in the previous matches. People turned up in large numbers for the final, which was beyond our expectations. We decided to complete the game (so as not to disappoint those who had come)," the MLA said.
Gujarat has seen a steady rise in cases in the past few days, with the active tally now standing at 948 cases.
The state's overall case tally is 8,29,359 with 10,113 deaths as of Sunday evening.