Bhagat Chunni Lal, who passed away at the age of 93 at his Jalandhar residence on Thursday, was a veteran BJP leader who remained active in Punjab politics for several decades and he served as an MLA from Jalandhar South and later Jalandhar West, and was part of the Parkash Singh Badal-led Punjab government as a Cabinet minister from 2012 to 2017.
Born on December 1, 1932, in Sialkot, Bhagat Chunni Lal’s family settled in Jalandhar after Partition.
He later entered electoral politics and contested his first Punjab Assembly election in 1985 from Jalandhar South as an independent candidate. He lost that election but subsequently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
His first Assembly victory came in 1997, when he won the Jalandhar South constituency as a BJP candidate and he retained the seat in the 2007 Punjab Assembly elections.
Following delimitation, the Jalandhar South constituency became Jalandhar West.
Bhagat Chunni Lal contested from the new constituency and won the 2012 Assembly election, marking his third victory in the Punjab Assembly.
His political career also included responsibilities within the Punjab Assembly, and in 2011, he served as the Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly.
After the 2012 election, he became the leader of the BJP legislative party in the Assembly, a position he held from 2012 to 2017.
During the 2012 to 2017 tenure of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government led by Parkash Singh Badal, Bhagat Chunni Lal served as a Cabinet minister and he also handled several important portfolios during this period, including Local Bodies, Medical Education and Research, Labour, and Forests and Wildlife.
The Local Bodies portfolio was particularly significant for Jalandhar, as it dealt with civic administration and urban local bodies across the state and his political career therefore remained closely connected with Jalandhar, where he had represented the area in the Assembly and where his family continued to live.
Bhagat Chunni Lal retired from electoral politics after the 2017 Assembly elections and his political journey had by then spanned more than three decades, beginning with his unsuccessful election debut in 1985 and including three successful Assembly terms.
He was also known as the father of current Punjab Cabinet minister Mohinder Bhagat.
Mohinder Bhagat has followed his father into politics and currently serves as a minister in the Punjab government.
Bhagat Chunni Lal passed away early Thursday morning at his Jalandhar residence.
Following his death, Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Varjeet Walia, Police Commissioner Satinder Singh and Central Halka In-charge Nitin Kohli along with other prominent leaders and officials visited the family and paid their respects.
His last rites are scheduled to be performed around 5 PM at the Basti Sheikh cremation ground in Jalandhar.
The Punjab government has also announced a half-day holiday on Thursday following his death.
Bhagat Chunni Lal is survived by four sons and four daughters.
His political career, spanning the period from the 1980s to 2017, included three Assembly victories, a tenure as Deputy Speaker, leadership of the BJP legislative party and a term as a Punjab Cabinet minister.