Congress’ Lok Sabha MP from Bangalore Rural, D.K. Suresh said on Tuesday that he has tested positive for coronavirus and is in isolation though he is asymptomatic.
“I have tested positive for Covid-19 and in isolation. I request all, including family members and friends who have been in contact with me to test themselves,” Suresh tweeted.
He also requested media persons and officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who were with him on Monday during a search operation in his house, to get themselves tested.
Suresh, 53, is the only opposition Congress member who won from the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency in the May 2019 general elections, while the party’s other candidates lost in the 20 Lok Sabha seats they contested from the southern state.
Suresh is the younger brother of the party’s state unit president D.K. Shivakumar, who is a legislator from the Kanakapura assembly segment in Ramanagara district.
The CBI had on Monday raided the houses of both the brothers in the upscale Sadashivanagar area in the city centre for allegedly amassing assets and wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Shivakumar, 58, was also infected by the virus on August 25 and recovered after undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city.
State Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar also tested COVID positive on Monday and is presently under home isolation.
“As I have tested positive for Covid-19, I will be home quarantined for a few days on the advice of doctors. No need to panic as there are no symptoms,” Suresh Kumar tweeted.
Kumar, 64, is the ruling BJP’s legislator for the fifth term from the Rajajinagar assembly segment in the city’s northwest suburb.
Kumar is among the dozen state cabinet ministers who have been infected by the virus.
Among the COVID-hit ministers were Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Deputy Chief Ministers Govid Karjol, and C.N. Ashwath Narayan, J.C. Madhuswamy, Basavaraj Bommai, K. Gopalaiah, Byrathi Basavaraj, Prabhu Chavan, Shivaram Hebbar, K.S. Eshwarappa and B. Sriramulu.
According to state assembly Speaker Vishwanath Hegde Kageri, about 70 legislators of the BJP, opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) contracted the virus ahead of the six-day monsoon session in September.
In the Congress, its leader Siddaramaiah and lawmakers H.K. Patil and Dinesh Gundu Rao had tested positive.
