Two ailing Lok Sabha members dead

Two Lok Sabha members, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD’s) Md Taslimuddin and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Mahant Chand Nath passed away on Sunday. Both had been ailing.

Chand Nath was the MP from Rajasthan’s Alwar, while Mohammad Taslimuddin from Araria in Bihar. Both seats would now need bypolls. Elections also need to be held on Ajmer Lok Sabha seat after the sitting BJP member Sanwar Lal Jat passed away in August. Elections are also due in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats after sitting members, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, have been elected to the state’s legislative council. Chand Nath, 61, was the head priest of the Mast Nath temple in Alwar. He was suffering from throat cancer. 

He was the Lok Sabha member from Alwar. He had defeated Congress candidate and former Union minister Jitendra Singh. Veteran RJD leader and Araria Lok Sabha member Taslimuddin, 74, died at a hospital in Chennai. He died due to breathing problem, the MP’s son Sarfaraz Alam, who is also an MLA, said. “Taslimuddin was a big leader in Seemanchal area (of Bihar) and it will be difficult to fill the void created by his death in politics and party,” RJD Bihar unit president Ramchandra Purve said.