Stringent testing conditions still a huge impediment

NEW DELHI: India on Friday expanded its testing protocol to cover more people as contacttracing of fresh coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases revealed links to hundreds more, includingseniorpoliticiansandbureaucrats still to show any symptom, evenasexpertssaidthatanunexplained delay in extending the diagnosticstoprivatelabsmeant the windowto stopthe virus was fast slipping away.

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath submitted his resignation to governor Lalji Tandon, on Friday, two hours before a floor test in the state assembly on the directions of the Supreme Court (SC) that his government looked set to lose.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislative party will elect its leader on Saturday, and subsequently meet the governor to stake its claim to forming the government, party leaders said.

The BJP leaders said central party observers will be in Bhopal to conduct the legislative party meeting, in which the chief minister-designate will be decided.

Celebrations took place at the BJP’s office in Bhopal after Nath’s resignation in which senior party leaders participated.

The resignation of Nath, who assumed office on December 17, 2018, as the 18th chief minister of the state, brought to an end the troubled 15-month tenure of the Congress, which, inlate2018, dislodged the BJP, which had ruled Madhya Pradesh for 15 years.

In the Assembly records, the Congress government was reduced to minority on Thursday night when the speaker of thestateassembly, NPPrajapati, accepted the resignation of 16 rebel Congress lawmakers, hours after the Supreme Court asked the speaker to conduct a floor test by 5 pm on Friday.