LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh’s cabinet minister for Technical Education Kamal Rani Varundied due to coronavirus at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) on Sunday morning.
She was among half a dozen UP ministers who have so far tested positive for the coronavirus but was the only one to succumb to the pandemic.
Kamal Rani was 62 and had tested positive for COVID-19 on July 18. She was admitted to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital and later shifted to SGGIMS as her condition deteriorated and her oxygen level started going down.
As per a statement released by the PGI authorities, the minister was admitted to SGPGIMS when she was having the symptoms like cough, fever and acute breathlessness. She had co-morbid conditions like Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and Hypothyroidism.
The statement further claims that the minister had bilateral pneumonia when she was brought to SGPGIMS. She was shifted to ICU as soon as she was admitted to the hospital as she was in need of high oxygen requirement.
Initially, the minister responded to the treatment and there was improvement in her clinical status though she had features of severe disease. But a few days later, her condition started deteriorating again with"progressively non-invasive ventilator and oxygen requirement. She was given the plasma therapy and even the experts like Dr Randeep Guleria, director, AIIMS Delhi and Dr Ritesh Agarwal of Chandigarh PGI were also consulted.
The minister was put on mechanical ventilator on Saturday and she succumbed at 9:30 on Sunday morning.
Expressing his grief over the death of his cabinet colleague, CM Yogi Aditynath cancelled all his engagements and Ayodhya visit slated for Sunday.
Born on May 3, 1958, Kamal Rani was among the 18 members inducted in the council of ministers headed by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on August 21, 2019, the first such reshuffle since the BJP government came to power in March 2017.
Kamal Rani was the only woman cabinet minister in UP following Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s resignation after getting elected to the Lok Sabha.
She was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996. In 1998, she was re-elected to Parliament for a second term.
Kamal Rani had won from Ghatampur assembly seat in the 2017 assembly election. She secured 48.52 per cent of votes in the election, wrestling the seat from Samajwadi Party.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel conveyed condolences to Kamal Rani’s family. "The sudden death of Kamal Rani is shocking. She was very active during her stint as Member of Parliament in the 11th and 12th Lok Sabha. I express my deepest condolences to her family in this time of grief," Anandiben Patel said in a statement.