Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi dies at 72
Sushil Modi, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has passed away at the age of 72. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and was admitted in the intensive care unit for the last one month. Modi had publicly announced his battle with cancer on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on April 3.
Modi's announcement and impact on Bihar politics
Modi had opted out of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections due to his health condition. He had announced, "I have been battling cancer for the last 6 months. Now I feel that the time has come to tell people. I will not be able to do anything in the Lok Sabha elections."
Tributes pour in for Modi
Several BJP leaders mourned Modi's passing, including Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad. Shah expressed his grief stating, "Today Bihar has lost a great pioneer of politics forever...The void that has emerged in Bihar politics due to his demise cannot be filled for a long time." Singh remembered Modi's contributions stating that "his work for the development of Bihar will always be remembered." Condolences also came from political rivals including Tejashwi Yadav and Mamata Banerjee.
Twitter Post
His political journey
Modi got involved in politics while he was a student at Patna University in the 1970s. He first became an MLA in 1990 from the Patna Central constituency. Then, from 1996 to 2004, he served as the leader of the opposition in the Bihar Assembly. In 2004, he was elected to Lok Sabha from Bhagalpur. The following year, he resigned from the Lok Sabha and joined the legislative council, after which he was appointed deputy chief minister.
He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020
He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020, but the BJP dropped his name for the Rajya Sabha elections in February. In 2022, he made headlines after he filed a criminal defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for the latter's statement that "all Modis are thieves." Based on the speech, Modi filed the case, saying it was a derogatory statement directed at people with the Modi surname.
