The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost many of its stalwarts, founding members and senior leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, in the last year.
While some of them had retired from active politics, a few died while in office. Here are the leaders that the BJP lost in a year’s time:
Atal Bihari Vajpayee: He was the BJP’s first prime minister and a founding member of the party. He died on August 16 last year at an age of 93, after remaining out of public life for more than a decade and battling a series of health issues.
Madan Lal Khurana: Former Delhi chief minister, Khurana was considered one of the tallest leader of the BJP in the national capital. Khurana started his career with Jan Sangh, the erstwhile avatar of the BJP, and held several posts in the party and union government. He died on October 27, 2018, after a prolonged illness.
Ananth Kumar: The several time parliamentarian from Bengaluru was the BJP’s prominent face from the south. He held ministerial position in the first BJP government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then under Narendra Modi. Kumar was among those next-generation leaders that LK Advani groomed for a bigger role in the party and the government. He was battling cancer and died on November 12 last year.
Balram Das Tandon: Another founding member of the Jan Sangh, Tandon died on August 14 in 2018 as the governor of Chhattisgarh.
Manohar Parrikar: The engineer-turned-politician served as Goa’s chief minister and Union defence minister under Narendra Modi. A no-nonsense leader, Parrikar was close to the RSS brass. He died on March 17, 2019, after a prolonged illness.
Mange Ram Garg: Garg represented the Wazirpur assembly constituency in the national capital between 2003 and 2008. He had held a number of positions in the BJP, including that of the treasurer, the district president and the chief of its Delhi unit. Garg, who was not keeping well due to age-related issues, died at the age of 83 in July this year.
Sushma Swaraj: The former foreign minister died on Tuesday night after a massive cardiac arrest in New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Sushma Swaraj was one of the most popular leaders of the BJP and also the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government, the first woman chief minister of Delhi and the first woman spokesperson for a national political party in the country.
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