Another Odisha Legislator Tests COVID-19 Positive; Total 31 BJD MLAs Infected

Bhubaneswar: The number of COVID-afflicted BJD legislators in Odisha went up to 31 on Wednesday with Malkangiri MLA Aditya Madhi testing positive for the virus.

Informing the media, Madhi said he has been admitted to AIIMS-Bhubaneswar. He also requested people, who had come in contact with him, to undergo COVID-19 test and remain under home isolation.

Madhi is among the 23 party MLAs who have tested positive.

The others are Boudh MLA Pradip Kumar Amat, Dhenkanal MLA Sudhir Kumar Samal, Pipili MLA Pradeep Maharathy, Baliguda MLA Chakramani Kanhar, Kendrapada MLA Sashi Bhusan Behera, Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher, Nabarangpur MLA Sadasiva Pradhani, Laxmipur MLA Prabhu Jani, Anandpur MLA Bhagirathi Sethy, Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Basudevpur MLA Bishnubrata Routray, Bhubaneswar North MLA Susant Rout, Bhubaneswar Central MLA Ananta Narayan Jena, Berhampur MLA Bikram Panda, Chandbali MLA Byomakesh Ray, Pottangi MLA Pritam Padhi, Bhadrak MLA Sanjib Mallick, Bari MLA Sunanda Das, Polasara MLA Srikant Sahu, Remuna MLA Sudhanshu Shekhar Parida, Jagatsinghpur MLA Prasanta Muduli and Salepur MLA Prasant Behera who also have tested positive for the virus.

Apart from this, eight ministers— Padmanabha Behera, Samir Ranjan Dash, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Tukuni Sahu, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Susanta Singh, Arun Kumar Sahu and Padmini Dian – have also been infected.

Senior BJD leader and former Badamba MLA Debi Prasad Mishra has also contracted the virus.