Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, passed away on Monday at the age of 72. The former Deputy Chief Minister was battling cancer.
Modi was born on January 5, 1952, and attended Patna Science College, where he graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Botany degree in 1973. He joined the social movement started by Jai Prakash Narayan after leaving his M.Sc. degree.
Modi’s political career began as a student activist at Patna University. He became the general secretary of the Patna University Students’ Union in 1973 and was arrested five times during the JP Movement and the Emergency, spending 19 months in jail.
In 1990, Modi entered active politics and successfully contested the Patna Central Assembly. He was re-elected in 1995 and 2000. In 1990, he was made the Chief Whip of the BJP Bihar Legislature Party. In 2004, he was elected from the Bhagalpur constituency and became a member of Parliament. However, in 2005, he resigned from the Lok Sabha and took over as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. He was given the Finance Portfolio along with other departments.
After the NDA victory in the 2010 Bihar elections, he continued to be the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
Modi, who is credited for unearthing the fodder scam in Bihar through his PIL, was the main player behind the fall of the JDU-RJD Grand Alliance. Modi served as deputy to Janata Dal (United) chief and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for approximately 11 years.
On December 8, 2020, he was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar to fill the vacant seat after the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan. In April 2024, Modi announced that he won’t be able to participate in the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2024 due to his ongoing battle with cancer.
Over his three-decade-long political career, Modi played a pivotal role in shaping Bihar’s political environment and has made substantial contributions to the state’s political arena.
