News18.com
First published: December 28, 2016, 10:50 AM IST | Updated: 9 mins ago
Late MP Chief Minister Sunderlal Patwa (File photo: ETV grab)
Bhopal: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and two-times Madhya Pradesh chief minister Sunderlal Patwa passed away at a private hospital in Bhopal on Wednesday.
Considered as political mentor of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Patwa born in 1924 at Kukdeshwar in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh.
He was appointed chief minister for a brief period of two months in the year 1980 and again from 1990 to 1992.
He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1997 after a by-poll but lost in 1998 general elections.
In 1999, he again got elected to Lok Sabha and became a minister in NDA government from 1999 to 2001.
An RSS ideologue, Patwa was instrumental in consolidating BJP base in the undivided Madhya Pradesh. Till recently, he was part of BJP’s Margdarshak Mandal in the state.
Political figures from various political parties condoled his death.
BJP’s Madhya Pradesh president Nandkumar Chauhan termed his demise as an end of an era and irreparable damage to BJP and Madhya Pradesh.
“He was a veteran and one of the founding pillars of Bharatiya Janata Party in undivided Madhya Pradesh as elsewhere in India,” Bhopal MP Alok Sanjar said.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Arun Yadav termed him a political mentor who even extended his able mentorship to even opposition parties.