Congress leader and Haryana ex-minister Shamsher Surjewala dies at 87

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 20

Former Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief and Rajya Sabha ex-MP Shamsher Singh Surjewala passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on Monday.

The 87-year-old leader had been ailing for the past couple of years.

His cremation will take place at 3 pm on Monday at Narwana, a constituency he represented as MLA four times before moving to Kaithal following delimitation.

He was the father of AICC media in-charge and former Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.

In the passing of Shri Shamsher Singh Surjewala, we have lost a popular & respected Congressman who worked tirelessly in the service of India’s farmers & the development of Haryana. My condolences to his family & friends. Om Shanti.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 20, 2020

Surjewala’s brush with India’s independence struggle started in the 1940s when he was president of the Students Congress in Sangrur district of the erstwhile Punjab. He was expelled from the Yadavindra State high school by the ruler of Sangrur for espousing the agenda of the Indian National Congress.

He started law practice in 1957 and was elected managing director, Central Bank of Sangrur, before being elected chairman of the panchayat samiti of Kalayat in Kaithal district.

Surjewala also remained minister in the state government on four occasions. He was a five-time MLA—from Narwana in 1967, 1977, 1982 and 1991 and from Kaithal in 2005.

He was also former president of the All India Kisan Congress, who vociferously raised the issue of farmers’ suicides in Haryana.