Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajsamand MLA Kiran Maheshwari, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died at a private hospital in Gurugram on Sunday night. Ms. Maheshwari, a three-time MLA, former MP and former State Minister, was 59.
She was undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram for the last three weeks. She was shifted to the life support system last week, when her condition deteriorated. S She had reportedly contracted the virus infection during the campaign for municipal elections in Kota earlier this month.
Ms. Maheshwari’s body, being taken to her hometown Udaipur, will be kept for some time at her Amba Mata Scheme residence to enable the people to pay homage. The funeral will be conducted at Rani Road crematorium in Udaipur on Tuesday.
Ms. Maheshwari was elected an MP from Udaipur-Rajsamand seat in 2004, when she defeated Girija Vyas of Congress. She was elected an MLA from Rajsamand for the first time in 2008 and she held the post of Higher Education Minister in the previous BJP government in the State.
She also served as the BJP national secretary in 2011 and national vice-president in 2013. She was earlier the BJP Mahila Morcha’s national president in 2006 and had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Ajmer against Sachin Pilot of Congress.
With Ms. Maheshwari’s death, the number of MLAs in Rajasthan has come down from 200 to 197, as Congress MLA from Sahara, Kailash Trivedi, and Social Justice & Empowerment Minister Bhanwarlal Meghwal, representing Sujangarh, had passed away recently.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, former CM Vasundhara Raje, Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi and Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari have condoled Ms. Maheshwari’s death.