Former BJP MP Karuna Shukla has passed away on Tuesday in Raipur at the age of 70 due to the COVID-19 viral infection. Shukla was the niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and she had been undergoing treatment for the pandemic for the past few days in Ram Krishna Hospital in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

Ever since the news of Shukla's demise broke out, several leaders have been paying tribute and expressing their condolences to the family members. Shukla was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha and she had represented the Janjgir parliamentary constituency of Chhattisgarh as a BJP MP. She again contested in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from the BJP's ticket. 

However, she lost the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Korba to Charan Das Mahant of the Congress party, who was the minister at the Union government. Shukla had resigned from the BJP on October 25, 2013, citing that the party was allegedly under the grip of power politics. By exiting from the saffron camp, she had ended her 32-year long association with the BJP.

On February 27, 2014, she has joined the Indian National Congress and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from the Bilaspur constituency in Chhattisgarh. However, she again got defeated in the polls and this time, she was defeated by BJP's Lakhan Lal Sahu by a margin of 1,76,436 votes. She had contested in the 2018 Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha Election from Rajnandgaon, but she has lost eventually. 

She was defeated by former Chief Minister Raman Singh. She had been one of the senior leaders of the Congress party in the state. Recently, she had tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection and she was rushed to the Ram Krishna Hospital in Raipur for further treatments. However, she had breathed her last on Tuesday at the age of 70. 

According to reports, the last rites were done in Balodabazar on Tuesday and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had paid tribute to the departed soul and said that he had a close family relationship with Shukla outside politics. Taking to Twitter, Baghel wrote in Hindi, "My aunt Karuna Shukla is no more. The ruthless Corona took her as well. She has had a very close family relationship outside of politics and I continued to get her blessings. May God gives her space in the shrine and we all have the power to bear her loss."