BHOPAL: Swine flu has claimed the life of a woman MLA in Rajasthan. Kirti Kumari, the BJP legislator from Mandalgarh constituency in Bhilwara district, died 15 days past her 50th birthday at a private hospital in Jaipur early Monday.With the MLA’s death due to the H1N1 infection, Rajasthan’s toll due to swine flu has risen to 79 since January 1, 2017.
According to the MLA’s brother Bhojraj, “She was unwell for five to six days while staying in Bijolia. She was treated by local physicians but her condition deteriorated on Sunday and we had rushed her to a hospital in Kota district.”
However, doctors in Kota referred her to the state government’s SMS Hospital in Jaipur in the evening. There, her condition deteriorated further, and the MLA was shifted to Fortis Hospital.
At the latter hospital, Kirti Kumari was put under ventilator as a team of 12 doctors kept watch. But they couldn’t save her. The 50-year-old lawmaker died at around 7 am Monday.
Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje mourned her death, saying “her demise is a huge loss for me and for the entire BJP family.”
Apart from the 79 deaths reported in Rajasthan due to swine flu this year, there have been more than 700 H1N1 positive cases identified from the 3123 swab samples tested for the virus this season.
Swine flu cases are being reported from across the state including Jaipur, Bharatpur, Alwar, Kota, Bhilwara, Dausa, Sikar, Pali, Udaipur and Chittorgarh districts.
Of the 79 deaths reported so far, 18 have been from Jaipur. And of the 759 swine flu positive cases reported, more than 300 have been from Jaipur alone.
In 2015, Rajasthan endured a swine flu epidemic with 6500 positive cases and 400 deaths.
Hailing from the erstwhile royal family of Bijolia in Bhilwara, Kirti Kumari served as a member of the Bhilwara Zila Parishad from Mandalgarh from 2003 to 2008.
She contested her first Assembly election in Rajasthan from Mandalgarh in 2003 but lost to Congress candidate and former chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur. In 2008 again, Kirti Kumari lost the Assembly poll from Mandalgarh against Congress candidate Pradeep Kumar Singh.
Her third attempt to enter the Rajasthan Assembly proved fruitful. She defeated Congress candidate Vivek Dhakkar by 19,000-plus votes in the 2013 polls to win the Mandalgarh seat for the first time.