75 BJP leaders in Bihar, including state general secretary Devesh Kumar, test positive for COVID-19

Seventy-five Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in the poll-bound state of Bihar have tested positive for COVID-19, said reports. According to a report by Times Now, samples of 100 leaders and staff working at the state BJP headquarters in Patna were collected on Monday. Out of these, 75 leaders including Bihar BJP general secretary Devesh Kumar and MLC Radha Mohan Sharma have been found infected with the deadly virus. The Bihar Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in October or November. Therefore, several meetings were held in the recent past at the party’s headquarters in Bihar. Virtual meetings and rallies were also organised from here, as per a report in Prabhat Khabar. A report in The Times of India quoted BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand as saying that several party workers and functionaries have given their samples for COVID-19 testing. The report said that a BJP MLA from north Bihar, a spokesperson from BJP, and a JD(U) functionary are the recent ones to have been infected by the virus. Till date, nearly 18,000 people in Bihar have tested positive for COVID-19. The virus has claimed lives of 160 people in the state. In the last 24 hours, 1,116 new cases and nine deaths have been reported from 38 districts of Bihar. With the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state, the Bihar government has announced a complete lockdown from 16 to 31 July. The decision to announce the lockdown was taken during a meeting that was held earlier today. During the lockdown in Bihar, only essential services will be allowed.