Pray for 30 mins on Monday:Sumitra Mahajan's anti-virus mantra

Former Lok Sabha Speaker and

senior BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan has urged people to pray to their favourite deities for half an hour on Monday morning to contain the coronavirus outbreak, an appeal that was latched on to by the opposition Congress to slam Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the rising number of fatalities.

Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh and the country's cleanest urban area, is now home to 890 COVID-19 patients, with the mortality rate due to the infection that is higher than the national average.

As on Sunday, 49 people have died of the infection in Indore.

The Congress asked 77-year-old Mahajan to question Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on how such a large number of people got infected in Indore, which the latter had called "city of dreams".

In a recent video message, Mahajan said, "Doctors, government officials, police officers and others are fighting the field battle against the coronavirus. We too can do one thing ...