Election rallies have been cancelled in India's heartland as authorities fret over a sudden Covid-19 surge, driven by the Omicron variant, which has seen confirmed infections nearly triple in two days, reports AFP.

“Owing to concerns over the growing number of Covid cases, all ... rallies of the party have been cancelled,” Ashok Singh, a spokesperson for the opposition Congress, told AFP.

Another opposition group said it had switched to virtual campaigning while the BJP cancelled a rally in Noida, a satellite city of the capital New Delhi that has seen a spate of new cases.

Party spokesman Manish Shukla denied the virus was the reason for calling off the Noida event — where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seen as a potential Modi successor, was set to appear. “It was cancelled due to some other technical reason,” he told AFP, without giving further detail.