VIRUS BADLY HITS BJP Lockdown in Bihar till July 31
Following an alarming surge in the Corona positive cases, the Bihar go vernment on Tuesday decided to extend total lockdown in Bihar until July 31. T he loc kdown enforcement decision w as tak - en a t a high-le vel meeting chaired by c hief secretary Dipak Kumar. A ll modes of transport and places of r eligious w orships will r emain shut.
The BJP headquar ters in Birchandra P atel R oad her e is worst af fected due to cor onavirus. A team of Indian Medical Council of Research (ICMR) in its report sub mitted on Tus eady disclosed 75 of the 100 BJP leaders, examined on Monday have tested positi ve . BJP spokesman Prem Ranjan P atel s aid the ICMR te am collected samples of the BJP leaders and staff on Mo nday w hen 1 00 people were examined.
They are senior party leaders eng aged in the monthlong vir tual r allies of par ty workers in different districts. The meet ings w ere ch aired by par ty g eneral secr etary Bhupinder Yadav o n a d aily basis.
Those hit b y c oronavirus include the se niormost leader in the o rganisation, Nagendra Tripathi, g eneral secretary (organisation) re presenting R SS, De vesh k umar, g eneral secretary, Rajesh V erma, vice-pr esident Radha Mohan Sharma, vicepresident, par ty spok esmen Arwind Ji, Raji v Jha. F our staff in the IT de pt too have been found positive.
The BJP office will r emain shut till July 16 and entrance gates have been locked.
A senior v ice-president of the party told F PJ, “We h a d requested our leaders not to hold vir tual meetings a s in varoius distr icts, the leaders who attended the rallies were tested positive for the corona v i r us. He claimed in Munger 11 of the 40 le aders, who attended the ra lly in a dharmshala a nd 9 in Mo tihari w ere dec lared confirmed coronavictims.Still,the party leadership insisted on thes e rallies. Bhupinder Yadav h a d been add ressing t he ra llies daily since July 3 when workers of Shaha bad w ere a ddressed.
Those attending the rallies included the Vistaraks, mayors and de puty mayors, chairmen a nd de puty c hairmen of municipalities, all office-bearers, MLAs and f ormer MLAs, M Ps a nd former MPs, district presidents and general secretaries. On average, 100 people were asked to attend the rallies a nd hear Yadav’s speech.
The BJP wanted to tak e a lead in the election campaign over JD(U), its alliance par tner, said a g eneral secretary down with the Co vid inf ection. He had been organising the r allies since the first week of the month. Ticket aspirants were especially invited at the ra llies where social distancing wa s not ma intained. Senior ministers , including De puty CM Sushil Kumar Mo di was also addressed the rallies .F our members of his staff ar e found Corona positive .
BJP MLA V inay Bihari, who tested positi ve, was ad - mitted to the hospital on Tuesday. Two ministers a nd 15 le gislators ar e already in hospitals g etting tr eatment of Corona vrus.
The P atna secr etariat also is hit by the disease as half a dozen staff in the Chief Secretary office and finance secretary ar e do wn with vir us. District Magistrate o f Pat na K Ravi on Tuesda y sa id 14 members in the co llectorate staff ar e admit ted in dif ferent hosp itals as they ar e down with Corona.
Two doctors-NK Singh and Avinmash K umar and a young la wyer fr om Ar a, Sunil K umar Singh 50 kms from Patna d ied on Tuesda y at AIIMS, a Covid 19 dedicated hospital.
The District Magistrate has ordered closure of mar kets in Raje ndra Nagar, Kankarbagh an d Mitha pur with immediate effect following t hese areas becoming hotspots.