UP BJP spokesman Manoj Mishra dies days after testing Covid -ve
LUCKNOW : Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) UP unit spokesman Dr Manoj Mishra, also a lecturer at DAV College, Kanpur, passed away at a local hospital in Kanpur early on Monday—days after testing negative for Covid-19. He was 57.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev have condoled the demise of party spokesman. “I pray to God to give the family of the departed soul strength to bear the great loss,” CM Adityanath, deputy CM Maurya and other leaders said in nearly identical statements.
Mishra, who is survived by his wife and two children, had been undergoing dialysis at a private hospital in Kanpur. He was earlier admitted to another hospital for Covid and was recovering. After being shifted, he had tested negative for coronavirus.
The BJP spokesman, who had comorbidities including blood pressure, diabetes, heart and kidney ailments, was among those BJP leaders who served as the party’s state unit spokesman uninterrupted for a very long time and served under different UP BJP chiefs including Laxmikant Bajpai, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Mahendra Nath Pandey and Swatantra Dev.
“BJP leaders the late Brahmdutt Dwivedi and Ram Prakash Tripathi got him to join BJP and he started his political journey in the BJP from the party’s IT cell. He was a low-key leader who loved to talk about academics and how to improve the state of affairs. Even as the party spokesman, he would often be seen writing on academic matters,” a party leader said.
Meanwhile, the BJP also lost IT convener of party’s Kanpur-Bundelkhand region, Saurabh Bajpai, to Covid infection. The party has already lost three of its lawmakers to Covid. Several of its other party functionaries who got infected are now recovering.