Former union minister and HP Congress leader Sukh Ram passes away

Shimla, May 11 (PTI) Veteran Congress leader and former union minister Pandit Sukh Ram has passed away, his grandson said. He was 94.

Sukh Ram was admitted to AIIMS in New Delhi on May 7.

A Himachal Pradesh Congress leader, Sukh Ram's grandson Aashray Sharma in a Facebook post on late Wednesday night stated, "Adieu Grandfather, Now phone will not ring (Alvida Dadajee Abhi Nahi Bajegee Phone Ki Ghanti)." However, the post did not mention when he breathed his last.

Sharma also posted his childhood photo with Sukh Ram on Facebook.

Sukh Ram suffered a brain stroke in Manali on May 4. Subsequently, he was admitted at the regional hospital in Mandi from where he was airlifted to Delhi on Saturday for better treatment at AIIMS.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on May 7 provided a state helicopter for airlifting the veteran leader to Delhi.

Sukh Ram was the Union Minister of State, Communications (Independent Charge) from 1993 to 1996. He was a member of Lok Sabha from the Mandi constituency of Himachal Pradesh.

He won the Vidhan Sabha elections five times and the Lok Sabha elections three times.

In 2011, he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment for corruption when he was Communications Minister in 1996.

Sukh Ram's son Anil Sharma is a BJP MLA from Mandi.

Sukh Ram represented the Mandi Assembly seat from 1963 to 1984. During his tenure as Animal Husbandry minister in Himachal Pradesh, he brought cows from Germany which led to increase in income of the state farmers.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 and served as a junior minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government.

Sukh Ram served as minister of state for defence production and supplies, planning and food and civil supplies. Sukh Ram was the Union minister of state (independent charge) holding the communications portfolio from 1993 to 1996.

While Sukh Ram represented the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, his son Anil Sharma contested and won the Assembly seat in 1993.