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Veteran Congress leader and former Union Telecom Minister Pandit Sukh Ram has died aged 94, his grandson said.
Sukh Ram was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS in Delhi on May 7.
A Himachal Pradesh Congress leader, Sukh Ram’s grandson, Aashray Sharma, wrote in a Facebook post late last night: “Adieu Grandfather, now the phone is not ringing (Alvida Dadajee, Abhi Nahi Bajegee Phone Ki Ghanti).” However, the message did not mention the time of death.
Aashrav Sharma also posted his childhood photo with Sukh Ram on Facebook.
Sukh Ram suffered a stroke in Manali on May 4, after which he was admitted to the regional hospital in Himachal’s Mandi. From there, he was flown to Delhi on Saturday for treatment at AIIMS.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur delivered a state helicopter on May 7 to transport the congress leader to Delhi.
Sukh Ram was the Union’s Minister of State, Communications (Independent Charge) from 1993 to 1996. He was a member of Lok Sabha of Mandi constituency of Himachal Pradesh.
He won the Vidhan Sabha elections five times and the Lok Sabha elections three times.
In 2011, he was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption when he was Minister of Communications in 1996.
Sukh Ram’s son Anil Sharma is a BJP MLA from Mandi.
Sukh Ram represented the seat of the Mandi Assembly from 1963 to 1984. During his tenure as the Minister of Animal Husbandry in Himachal Pradesh, he brought cows from Germany leading to an increase in the income of the state farmers.
He was elected a member of the Lok Sabha in 1984 and served as Deputy Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government.
Sukh Ram served as the state minister for defense production and supplies, planning and food and civilian facilities. Sukh Ram was the Union’s foreign minister (independent indictment) who controlled the communications portfolio from 1993 to 1996.
While Sukh Ram represented Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, his son Anil Sharma contested and won the assembly seat in 1993.
Sukh Ram won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in 1996 but he and his son were expelled from Congress after the telecom scam. They then put forward the Himachal Vikas Congress party, which formed an alliance with the BJP after the poll and joined the government.
In 1998, Sukh Ram contested Mandi Sadar’s Assembly elections and won by a huge margin. His son Anil Sharma was elected a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1998.
In the 2003 Assembly poll, he retained the Mandi Assembly seat but rejoined Congress ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. His son Anil Sharma won the Mandi Assembly seat in 2007 and 2012 as a congressional candidate .
Ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections, Sukh Ram joined the BJP along with his son Anil Sharma and grandson Aashray Sharma.
However, Sukh Ram and his grandson Aashray Sharma rejoined Congress just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to get a congress ticket for Aashray, but he was unable to win.
Sukh Ram was born on July 27, 1927. His other grandson Aayush Sharma is an actor and married to the sister of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)