The Aam Aadmi Party’s South Haryana convenor and Independent councillor Ranbir Singh Rathee died on Sunday. He was under treatment for COVID-19 at Medanta Hospital and breathed his last around midnight.
Mr. Rathee, Ward No. 34 councillor, had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections in 2019 from Gurgaon Assembly constituency on the Aam Aadmi Party’s ticket. The president of Citizen Council, an umbrella organisation of various residents’ welfare associations, Mr. Rathee had strongly taken up the issue of shifting of the Sirhual toll plaza, depleting ground-water levels and a host of local, political and social issues.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha member and Haryana in-charge Sushil Gupta expressed condolences over the demise of Mr. Rathee saying that “the party had lost a strong pillar” in his death. The party’s national spokesperson Dilip Pandey remembered Mr. Rathee saying that he was always in the forefront to help the poor and the needy during the lockdown.
The last rites of Mr. Rathee were performed at a cremation ground in Jharsa.
Manav Awaaz Sanstha convenor Abhay Jain, an advocate, described Mr. Rathee as “voice of Gurugram”. Mr. Jain said that Mr. Rathee exposed corrupt practices in the civic body and other departments and added that his death was “heavy loss” to the Millennium City.
