Nagender Singh. Shimla, May 11, 2022.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Sukh Ram suffering from brain stroke, passes away in AIIMS in Delhi today early morning, said his son Anil Sharma . He was 94.
“He died of heart attack today early morning at 1.30 am in AIIMS in New Delhi where he was being treated for brain stroke he suffered on May 4,” Anil Sharma said over phone from Mandi.
Sharma also informed that his body would be brought by road to Mandi today. Tomorrow morning at 11am, body will be kept for public darshan at Seri Manch, followed by creamation in the afternoon.
The Congress leader Sukh Ram popularly known as messiah of communication revolution, worked as Communication Minister from 1993 to 1996 in the then cabinet of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and brought revolution in the field communication with the introduction of mobile phone technology in India.
He was a member of Lok Sabha from the 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 of imprisonment for corruption when he was Communications Minister in 1996.
Sukh Ram’s son Anil Sharma is a BJP MLA from Mandi.
Sukh Ram represented the Mandi Assembly seat from 1963 to 1984. During his tenure as Animal Husbandry minister in Himachal Pradesh, he brought cows from Germany which led to the increase in income of the farmers.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 and served as a junior minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government.
Sukh Ram served as Minister of State for Defence Production and Supplies, Planning and Food and Civil Supplies. Sukh Ram was the Union Minister of State (Independent charge) holding the communications portfolio from 1993 to 1996.
While Sukh Ram represented the 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 expelled from the Congress after the telecom scam. Subsequently, he floated the Himachal Vikas Congress party, which entered into a post-poll alliance with the BJP and joined the government.
In 1998, Sukh Ram contested the Assembly Elections from Mandi Sadar and won by a huge margin.
In the 2003 Assembly poll, he retained the Mandi Assembly seat but rejoined Congress in the run-up to the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. His son Anil Sharma won the Mandi Assembly seat in 2007 and 2012 as a Congress candidate.
Prior to the 2017 Assembly elections, Sukh Ram joined BJP along with his son Anil Sharma and grandson Aashray Sharma.
Having deep affection for his old Congress Party, Sukh Ram along with his grandson Aashray Sharma rejoined Congress right before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to get Congress ticket for Aashray but he could not win.
One of the oldest politician who saw the nation through many phases of of rise and fall since British day, Sukh Ram was born on July 27, 1927.
