Patna, (UNI) Former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi passed away on Monday after battling renal cancer.
He was 72.
Modi breathed his last during treatment at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. He was suffering from throat cancer.
He had himself declared a few days ago that he was suffering from cancer. He had also informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it would not be possible for him to play an active role in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections due to his illness.
In his long political career, Modi held the position of leader of the opposition in the Bihar Assembly and later became Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar in the NDA government headed by the Chief Minister in 2005. He remained Deputy Chief Minister from 2005 to 2013 and later from 2017 to 2020. He was also elected MP from Bhagalpur in 2004. He had also been a member of the Rajya Sabha. During his student days, he was the General Secretary of the Patna University Students Union in the 1970s.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, former Bihar Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi, Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Jha, and several other leaders expressed their deep shock over the death of Modi. They described his death as a great loss for political horizons at the Bihar and national levels.
