BJP veteran Babulal Gaur, who started his career as a trade unionist, went on to become a tall figure of the party in Madhya Pradesh, holding several key positions, including that of the chief minister, during his decades long political career.
Gaur, 89, who died here on Wednesday morning after prolonged illness, also courted controversies over his alleged sexist remarks against women.
In a long political stint, Gaur served as the state home minister and also held many other portfolios in the BJP- led governments in the state.
Gaur was in limelight in the early 1990s, when as the state urban development minister, he got the encroachments in the old city area of Bhopal razed with the help of bulldozers, despite strong protest by the Congress. The action earned him the tag of the ‘bulldozer minister’.
He was respected both within BJP and by leaders of other parties. Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath got him airlifted to Delhi last month for his medical treatment and also visited him recently when he was hospitalised here. The OBC leader was Madhya Pradesh CM from 2004 to 2005 and represented his Govindpura Assembly seat seat 10 times.
Gaur rose to prominence in early 1990s, when he was the urban development minister in the state Cabinet headed by Sunderlal Patwa.
In 2016, he was dropped from the state cabinet by then CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan due to old age. Gaur took this as a slight and often said he resigned as CM in 2005 to pave way for Chouhan, at the behest of party patriarch L K Advani.
Gaur courted controversies over his alleged sexist remarks against women.
In April 2016, he was caught on camera inappropriately touching a woman during an event in Bhopal.