Covid-19 Catching BJP Leaders Unawares

Call in strange or sheer coincidence, more BJP leaders seem to be testing positive for Covid-19 of late.

It was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who first got infected and then re-infected. But the BJP biggest leader to test positive was Amit Shah, Union Home Minister and virtually the number 2 in the Modi cabinet who got himself admitted to Medanta Hospital in Haryana’s Gurugram.

Following him was Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has tested positive and got himself admitted to the same hospital where Shah is being treated.

Down South, BJP’s old warhorse and Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yediyurappa too tested positive and got himself admitted to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru along with his daughter who also tested positive. He had earlier self-quarantined himself when his staff had tested positive for Coronavirus. But in earlier cases, BSY had tested negative.

Following him is his political rival Siddaramaiah from Congress who joined BSY in Manipal Hospital having tested positive for coronavirus.

Another former BJP leader and presently Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit also tested positive.

Several MLAs in Tamil Nadu have tested positive for Covid-19, while DMK legislator J Anbazhagan died of it in June. Others who have tested positive in Tamil Nadu include: Labour Minister Nilofer Kafeel, K.P. Anbalagan (Higher Education), Sellur K. Raju (Cooperation) and P. Thangamani (Electricity).

Karti Chidambaram, an MP, has tested positive and has self-quarantined himself.

In Telangana, senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao tested positive in June. Besides Rao, two TRS MLAs, Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy and Bajireddy Govardhan, tested positive for Covid-19 in the same month.

In Uttar Pradesh, the only woman in the Yogi Adityanath government, Kamal Rani Verma, became the first victim among BJP leaders to succumb to Covid-19.

BJP’s Uttar Pradesh chief, Swatantra Dev Singh, and UP minister Mahendra Singh have also tested positive.

Several other UP ministers who have tested positive for the coronavirus include Jai Pratap Singh, Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh, Chetan Chauhan, Dharam Singh Saini and Upendra Tiwari.

In West Bengal, Trinamool MLA Tamonash Ghosh, 60, passed away in June due to the coronavirus.

In Maharashtra, five ministers in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government had tested positive earlier.

Among them were Shiv Sena leader Abdul Sattar and Congress’ Aslam Shaikh, who holds the textiles, port and fisheries portfolio.

NCP ministers Dhananjay Munde and Jitendra Awhad, and PWD Minister Ashok Chavan of the Congress had tested positive in June, April and May, respectively.

In June, Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj had tested positive for the virus, forcing Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to go into quarantine.

Surge in Covid cases, deaths in Karnataka