Patna: As many as 75 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and workers have been found infected with coronavirus in Bihar as the state government enforced total lockdown in the state for another fortnight, beginning July 16. In view of the seriousness of the situation, the state BJP office has been sealed.
Reports said BJP’s Bihar in-charge, Bhupendra Yadav, had held a series of meetings with party leaders at the state party office for an entire week. The meeting was aimed at chalking out strategy in view of the upcoming state polls, wherein tasks were assigned to the leaders and they were briefed on how to interact with the masses and the issues to raise to woo voters.
A BJP leader said one of the leaders attending the meeting was asymptomatic and he ultimately turned out to be a super-spreader. Most of the local media has reported that the virus has infected 75 BJP leaders and workers so far. Reports said the samples of 110 leaders and office staff members working at the state BJP headquarters in Patna were collected on Monday. Out of these, 75 returned positive results for COVID-19.
State BJP president Sanjay, however, claimed that only “24 people at the BJP office in Patna” had tested positive. State BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said the BJP was holding only virtual rallies and launching online party campaigns in view of the upcoming elections polls in Bihar, scheduled for October/November.
Bihar Opposition leader and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lawmaker Tejaswi Yadav has accused the BJP of spreading coronavirus across the state in its efforts to hold party meetings at its office. “Eighty-five persons are infected in Bihar chief minister’s residence, 75 BJP leaders are infected and several staff members at the office of the deputy chief minister, chief secretary and those at the main secretariat have also been infected.
“When the CM, Deputy CM and ministers are not safe, then you can well imagine the fate of common men,” Tejaswi said.
As the overall situation turns grave, the state government on Tuesday decided to enforce another spell of total lockdown in Bihar in view of the recent spike in positive cases. The fortnight-long lockdown will begin from July 16 and will remain in force till July 31. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Crisis Management Group, headed by the chief secretary.
Coronavirus has so far claimed 143 lives in Bihar and also infected 18,853 people, according to a latest report made available by the Bihar Health Department.
