Kalaburagi: Former Karnataka 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. He was 70.
"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 K.S. Mallikarjun told reporters here.
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Nayak, who was a minister in the Veerappa Moily-led Congress government in 1992-94, was down with pneumonia and heart disease. He is the first politician to succumb to the novel coronavirus in the state.
"On being admitted, Nayak's swab sample was taken for testing, which turned positive and he was under treatment," the official said.
A party hopper, Nayak joined the regional outfit Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) when the Congress denied him a 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.
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