An all-party meeting in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday decided to shorten the scheduled Vidhan Sabha session to a single-day in view of the death on the day of a Congress MLA who had earlier contracted COVID-19 and 39 MLAs having been infected so far.
“In view of the pandemic, the death of an MLA who had earlier contracted the illness and infection spread among legislators, the session will now be held in a limited way,” pro-tem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma told reporters here. He said members could attend the session virtually too.
The necessary financial and legislative business would be conducted in the House on September 21 in the presence of limited members. Further, written answers to questions received from MLAs for three days, on which the session was earlier planned, would be provided to them, the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat said.
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Multiple-organ failure
The State Congress said its MLA from Biaora Goverdhan Singh Dangi died from multiple-organ failure while undergoing treatment at a private hospital, days after he was cured of COVID-19 here. He was 62.
Spokesman Durgesh Sharma said Mr. Dangi’s son had brought back his body to Biaora in Rajgarh district from a hospital in Gurugram. “He worked extensively in the field of education and undertook Narmada parikrama along with senior leader Digvijaya Singh,” he said.
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His death comes on the day an all-party meeting is scheduled to discuss the three-day Assembly session which will begin from September 21. Until now, 10 Ministers, including the Chief Minister, and 24 MLAs have contracted the illness.
The death has rendered another Assembly seat vacant even as byelections to 27 of them are due. Of the 28 vacant seats, 27 were won in the 2018 Vidhan Sabha election by the Congress which led a 15-month government, before 22 rebels resigned bringing down the government. They later joined the BJP along with Jyotiraditya Scindia helping reinstate Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the Chief Minister.