Bengaluru; Congress’ Karnataka legislator B. Narayan Rao died of Covid-19 at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Thursday. He was 65.

He is said to have been on ventilator support for the past few days. He died without responding to treatment. Rao is the first MLA from the state to succumb to the disease.

Rao was critically ill with multi-organ failure, after he was diagnosed with a severe Covid-19 infection, and passed away at 3.55 p.m., Manipal Hospital director Manish Rai said in a statement.

Rao represented the Basavakalyan Assembly seat in the state’s Bidar district.

“Rao was admitted in our hospital on September 1 after he tested COVID positive. He was in a very critical state on multiple support systems, including a ventilator, till he breathed his last,” Rai said.

Rao’s death comes a day after Minister of State for Railways and BJP MP from Belagavi, Suresh Angadi, died of COVID on Wednesday night at New Delhi’s AIIMS.

BJP’s newly-elected Rajya Sabha member Ashok Gasti also succumbed to the infection in the Manipal hospital on September 17. He was 55.

Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) legislator from Sira in Tumakuru district, B. Satyanarayana died on August 4 in the same hospital after a prolonged illness due to multiple organ failure though he tested COVID negative. He was 67.

With inputs from IANS