Former lok Sabha MP from Assam and former Union Minister Bijay Krishna Handique passed away at the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH) on Sunday.
Handique, a six-time lok Sabha MP from the Jorhat lok Sabha constituency, was 81 and was suffering from some respiratory problem.
“He was admitted in the hospital on Saturday evening. He breathed his last around 12.20 pm on Sunday in the hospital,” said the doctors at the JMCH.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and other senior Congress leaders of the State, including the Cabinet colleagues of Gogoi, rushed to the Upper Assam town to pay tribute to the senior Congress leader, who had served the Union Cabinet in different capacities.
A colleague of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Handique had also served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1980 to 1986 and was also a member of the Assam legislative Assembly in 1971 from the Jorhat Town constituency.
Born to Assam’s renowned scholar Krishna Kanta Handique in 1934, BK Handique was in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Minister of Mines with additional charge of Department of of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) from May 2009 to July 2011.