Amreli, Oct 7 (IANS) Veteran Congress leader and former Amreli MP Virji Thummar, who began his public life as a farmer leader and went on to represent Amreli in Parliament and Lathi in the Gujarat Assembly, died at his residence here on Wednesday after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 67.

Thummar died around 12:15 p.m. after battling cancer for the past four years, Amreli district Congress president Pratap Dudhat said.

Thummar, born on May 31, 1959, was a commerce graduate and entered public life through farmers’ issues. He became a member of the Amreli district panchayat at a young age before moving into electoral politics.

He represented the Babra Assembly constituency in 1990, 1995, and 1998 and later entered Parliament, winning the Amreli Lok Sabha seat in 2004. He represented the constituency from 2004 to 2009.

Thummar subsequently returned to state politics and was elected as the Congress MLA from Lathi in 2017, serving until 2022.

He contested the Lathi seat again in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections but lost to the BJP candidate. Within the Congress organisation, Thummar served as a general secretary and vice-president and also headed the state unit of the Kisan Congress.

He was also associated with the cooperative sector in Amreli.

Congress’ national general secretary and Gujarat in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala described Thummar as an important pillar of the state party unit and said his death had left the party deeply saddened.

“With his demise, a banyan tree of the Congress family has departed from among us,” Surjewala said, recalling Thummar’s simplicity, affection for people, sense of duty and close association with farming and farmers.

He expressed condolences to Thummar’s family, friends and supporters, and particularly to his daughter and party leader Jenny Thummar.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Amit Chavda and Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Dr Tushar Chaudhary said the party had lost a senior leader who had provided effective leadership both in the cooperative sector and within the party.

“Thummar had spent his long public life raising issues concerning farmers, the cooperative sector and ordinary people. His death had left a major gap in the Congress and the state’s public life,” they added.

Leaders from both the Congress and the ruling BJP paid tributes to Thummar following his death.

His daughter Jenny Thummar is also active in politics and contested the Amreli Lok Sabha seat for the Congress in the 2024 general election.

–IANS

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