Chief whip in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly and BJP MLA Narinder Bragta, 69, died due to COVID-19 after a prolonged struggle at PGI Chandigarh on Saturday.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had visited PGI Chandigarh on Friday evening to enquire about his health. Thakur termed his demise an irreparable loss for Himachal Pradesh, especially for Jubbal-Kotkhai.
Narinder Bragta was first time elected to the State Legislative Assembly in 1998 from Shimla Constituency. He was re-elected in December 2007 from Jubbal-Kotkhai. He remained Minister of State for Horticulture (Independent Charge) 1998-02 and Horticulture, Technical Education and Health Minister from December 30, 2007 to December 2012. He was re-elected to the 13th Vidhan Sabha from Jubbal-Kotkhai for the third term in December 2017.
The Chief Minister expressed grief over the sad demise of Chief Whip and said that people of the State, particularly Shimla district, would always remember the contributions made by him in various fields such as horticulture, technical education etc. He said that Bragta had always taken care of the interests of the people of Jubbal-Kotkhai and horticulturists, besides giving new direction for the development of the
Thakur laid a wreath on the body of Narinder Bragta at Chandigarh and remembered his contributions made for the development of the State as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party. All Cabinet ministers have also expressed grief over the sad demise of Narinder Bragta.
At Chandigarh, State BJP President Suresh Kashyap, Himachal BJP Incharge Avinash Rai Khanna, Co-Incharge Sanjay Tandon, Organizing Secretary BJP Pawan Rana, MLAs Rajiv Bindal and Paramjit Singh Pammi, Vice Chairman Water Management Board Darshan Singh Saini, former MP Kripal Parmar and other BJP leaders also laid wreath on the body of Narinder Bragta.