Bhubaneswar: The number of BJD legilators afflicted with COVID-19 rose to 32 on Sunday after Pallahara MLA Mukesh Kumar Pal tested positive for the virus.
Pal informed the media that he had recently undergone a COVID-19 test in spite of having no symptoms. The report came out positive on Sunday.
The MLA stated that he is in home isolation as per the advice of doctors. He also requested the people, who have come in contact with him, to undergo COVID-19 test and isolate themselves.
The Pallahara BJD leader is among the 24 ruling party MLAs who have tested positive for the virus so far.
The others are Malkangiri MLA Aditya Madhi, 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.
Also, eight ministers— Padmanabha Behera, Samir Ranjan Dash, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Tukuni Sahu, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Susanta Singh, Arun Kumar Sahu and Padmini Dian – have been infected.
Senior BJD leader and former Badamba MLA Debi Prasad Mishra has also contracted the virus.
