March 17, 2021: Reacting to the participation of a large number of people to celebrate a Mahashivratri event in Vadodara amid a fresh spike in cases of coronavirus, BJP MLA from Manjalpur Yogesh Patel said he was not answerable for it as he did not invite anyone. He went on to say that “God is responsible” for the huge gathering.

Speaking to ANI, Patel said, “I didn’t send an invite to anyone. How can I be answerable for this? God is responsible.”

The event was organised by Satyam Shivam Sundaram Samiti.

Meanwhile, to contain the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Gujarat government on Tuesday decided to implement a night curfew in “four metros” Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot till March 31.

The curfew will be imposed between 10 pm and 6 am starting March 17.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 4,717 active cases in Gujarat whereas 2,69,955 people have recovered from the disease till now.”The death toll due to COVID-19 in the state now stands at 4,425,” the ministry said. (ANI)