New Delhi: As many as 25 members of Parliament have been learnt to have tested positive for COVID-19 on Day 1 of Parliament’s monsoon session on Monday.
Secretariat officials told Hindustan Times that junior railways minister Suresh Angadi, BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, Anant Kumar Hegde, Parvesh Sahib Singh, Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Kaushal Kishore were among the 17 Lok Sabha MPs to have contracted the disease.
In Rajya Sabha, Congress’ Deepender Singh Hooda and Naranbhai J Rathwa, BJP’s Ashok Gasti and Abhay Bhardwaj, AIADMK’s A Navneethakrishnan, AAP’s Sushil Kumar Gupta, TRS’ V Lakshmikantha Rao and Trinamool Congress’ Shanta Chhetri tested positive for the virus.
“After the routine Parliament test for COVID & genome test it’s confirmed that I have tested positive for the virus. I am currently in good health & spirits. I request everyone who has been recently in contact with me to get tested. Together We will fight & defeat Corona,” Lekhi later tweeted.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has carried out tests of more than 2,500 samples of members of Parliament and other officials “on a war footing” over the weekend.
With cases rising alarmingly in India, several senior MPs have decided to skip the proceedings.
The first day of the delayed session was attended by 359 members, of whom nearly 200 were present in Lok Sabha chamber and 30 seated in the visitors’ gallery above the main chamber.
Parliament session is being held in two shifts —Rajya Sabha in the morning and Lok Sabha in the afternoon — with members spread across the two chambers and galleries. On the opening day, however, Lok Sabha was held in the morning and Rajya Sabha in the afternoon.
