Amid sudden spike in Coronavirus cases in Karnataka, former state Congress minister Raja Madangopal Nayak died of COVID-19 in a designated hospital at Kalaburagi in the state’s northern region, an official said on Tuesday.
The 70-years-old is the first politician to become a victim of the Coronavirus pandemic in the state. Nayak is survived by his wife and two sons.
“Nayak succumbed to Coronavirus on Monday at ESI Hospital where he was admitted on July 23 after he was brought from his native place (Surpur) in the adjacent Yadigir district,” Kalaburagi district health official KS Mallikarjun was quoted by news agency IANS as saying.
Kalaburagi is about 630 km north of Bengaluru in the southern state.
Nayak, who was a minister in the Veerappa Moily-led Congress government in 1992-94, was down with pneumonia and heart disease. He is also the first politician to become a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.
“On being admitted, Nayak’s swab sample was taken for testing, which turned positive and was under treatment for Covid symptoms,” the official recalled.
He joined the regional outfit Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) when the Congress denied him ticket, and won from Surpur in the 1994 and 1999 state assembly elections. Later, he joined the BJP and lost in the April 2013 assembly elections to Raja Venkatappa of the Congress.
Karnataka on Monday witnessed 5,324 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the state’s tally cross one lakh-mark, with 1,01,465 cases of which 61,819 are active cases.