Current affairs

Former Gujarat CM has passed away at the age of 92! PM Modi pays tribute

By alagu, 29 October, 2020
India, Gujarat, BJP, Narendra Modi

Former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel has passed away on Thursday at the age of 92 in Ahmedabad after he tested positive for the COVID-19 pandemic. Patel was also been suffering from age-related ailments and he was admitted to Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad after he complained of chest pain. 

Keshubhai Patel had tested positive for the novel coronavirus last month. He underwent a COVID-19 test after one of his attendants had contracted the infection and his samples had returned positive for the infection and he was getting treated for recovery. The reports say that he had tested negative for the virus ten days after he contracted the infection. The nonagenarian was also suffering from cancer and he had complained of chest pain in the wee hours of Thursday following which he was admitted to Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad. 

His health had deteriorated as along with the prolonged illness, COVID-19 had also made his vulnerable and on Thursday, he breathed his last at the hospital at the age of 92 and he became one of the notable national politicians to die after getting tested positive for the pandemic. 

 

Keshubhai Patel had served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1995 and from 1998 to 2001. He was succeeded by current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who then took over the office of the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001 and he served until he became the Prime Minister in 2014. Patel had served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly in Gujarat six times. 

With a political career spanning for six decades, Keshubhai Patel was one of the prominent faces in BJP, and in 2012, he quitted from the BJP and launched his own political party - the Gujarat Parivartan Party. He started the party ahead of the Gujarat assembly polls in 2012, however, his party had conceded a huge defeat in the polls and he then merged his party with Mahagujarat Janata Party and in February 2014, he merged back with the BJP. 

Patel was lastly got elected to the state assembly in 2012 from Visavadar constituency and he later resigned from the post in 2014 by citing his health conditions. He then stayed out of active politics and was getting treated for his prolonged illness. Recently, he was tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection which had further worsened his health. 

Patel was born on July 24, 1928, in Visavadar town in the present Junagadh district, Gujarat. In 1945, he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a pracharak. He started his political career as a worker for the Jan Sangh in the 1960s and he was also imprisoned during the emergency. In 1975, Jan Sangh and Congress coalition came to power in Gujarat, and Patel was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rajkot constituency in 1977. 

He later stepped down as the Lok Sabha MP and became active in state politics. He became the Chief Minister of Gujarat on 14 March 1995 but he resigned in seven months and again, he became the Chief Minister on March 4th, 1998, and on October 2nd, 2001, he resigned from the post for the second time due to his health conditions, allegations of abuse of power, corruption, and poor administration. 

Following his resignation, Narendra Modi had succeeded him as the new Chief Minister and Patel had however got elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed in 2002 and twelve years later in 2014, he retired from active politics. Patel had married Leela Patel and the couple had five sons and a daughter. His son Bharat Patel is a member of BJP. Keshubhai Patel's wife had died in September 2006 and he has complained of chest pain and breathing difficulty on the morning hours of Thursday - October 29, 2020, and he had passed away on the same day at the hospital in Ahmedabad. 

After learning his demise, Prime Minister Modi had expressed his condolences. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister said, "Keshubhai mentored and groomed many younger Karyakartas including me. Everyone loved his affable nature. His demise is an irreparable loss. We are all grieving today. My thoughts are with his family and well-wishers. Spoke to his son Bharat and expressed condolences. Om Shanti".

 

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