In the last few decades, India has lost several prominent political leaders in accidents and assassinations. Among them Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay Gandhi, former President Gyani Zail Singh, AP Chief Minister Dr YS Rajashekhara Reddy, Congress stalwarts Madhav Rao Scindhia, Rajesh Pilot, Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi, former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma are some key figures, whose lives were cut short.
The mother and son, both Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated. BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was murdered by his younger brother Praveen Mahajan.
Here is a list of some prominent Indian political leaders who met a tragic death:
Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, former President Gyani Zail Singh, AP CM Dr YS Rajashekhara Reddy, former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma have met a tragic end.
1975 – The then Railways minister Lalit Narayan Mishra died on January 3, 1975 a day after he was injured in a bomb explosion during a function to declare open Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line.
1980 – Sanjay Gandhi, the Congress MP and son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi died in an air crash on June 23, 1980 near Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi.
1994 – On November 29, 1994 former President Zail Singh was involved in a serious vehicle accident near Kiratpur Sahib in Ropar District on his way to the Anandpur Sahib. He later died in Chandigarh on 25 December 1994.
2000 – Rajesh Pilot, former union minister and Congress leader. Road accident in Rajasthan.
2001 – Madhavarao Scindhia, former union minister and Congress leader in an air crash.
2002 – On March 3, 2002, Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi died in a helicopter crash in Kaikalur, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.
2004 – One Meghalaya cabinet minister and two MLAs killed in helicopter crash.
2006 – Pramod Mahajan, BJP leader and former union minister. Shot dead by his own younger brother.
2006 – Sahib Singh Verma, BJP leader, former CM of Delhi and former union minister, died in a road accident.
2005 – Haryana Congress leaders Ranbir Singh Mahindra and OP Jindal died in a helicopter crash.
2007 – Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Lok Sabha MP Sunil Kumar Mahato killed in a Naxal attack while he was watching a football match at Bakuria in East Singhbhum district about 40 kms from Jamshedpur.
2009 – Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr YS Rajashekhara Reddy dies in a helicopter crash.
2011 – Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu killed in chopper crash.
2012 – TDP leader and former Union minister K Yerran Naidu died in a road accident aged 55. Naidu was killed after the car he was travelling in crashed into an oil tanker in Andhra Pradesh.
2013 – Maoists kill top Chhattisgarh Congress leaders Mahendra Karma, Nandkumar Patel and VC Shukla in an ambush.
2014 – YSR Congress Party CP leader and AP MLA Bhuma Shobha Nagi Reddy dies in a road accident.
2014 – Union Rural Development minister Gopinath Munde killed in a road accident in New Delhi.
The latest to die in an accident was Shobha Nagireddy, sitting MLA of YSRCP, who lost her life in a road mishap near Allagadda late last night. As a matter of fact, the four time legislator from Allagadda was first elected as a TDP nominee in a by-election in 1997 and then re-elected from the same constituency in 1999.
She was the first woman to be appointed as the Chairperson of State Road Transport Corporation during the TDP regime.
Another prominent Telugu Desam leader, who lost his life was the then Speaker of the Lok Sabha GMC Balayogi, who died in a helicopter mishap in March 2002.
Then TDP’s Panchayat Raj Minister A. Madhava Reddy became a victim of Maoists landmine attack in March 2000. While he was returning to the city, his car was blasted by the landmines placed by the extremists near a culvert at Ghatkesar.
A senior leader and former MP of Telugu Desam Yerran Naidu too was killed in a road accident in November 2012 when he was returning to his native place in Srikakulam after attending a marriage function in Vizag. The car in which he was travelling rammed into a stationery petrol tanker parked on the highway.
Then Home Minister Indra Reddy, who died in a road accident in April 2004, was in TDP before switching over to Congress to become a minister. Interestingly his wife Sabitha Indra Reddy was made the first woman Home Minister by the then Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasehkar Reddy in his cabinet.
It may not be out of place to mention here that the heart-throb of the Telugu films, Soundarya, met with untimely death at a very young age when the helicopter in which she was on an election campaign trail on behalf of the BJP crashed.
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