Ailing BJP Pune MP Girish Bapat passes away

Ailing Bharatiya Janata Party MP Girish Bapat passed away during treatment in a Pune hospital, party leaders said on Wednesday.

He was 72 and breathed his last shortly after a medical bulletin was issued by Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital & Research Center which described him as 'critically ill', and put on life-support systems.

Top BJP state and central leaders as well as others from different political parties have mourned the demise of Bapat.

A five-time MLA from the Kasba Peth Assembly constituency of Pune, he was jailed for nearly 19 months during the Emergency and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019.

Not keeping good health for some time, the senior leader was being treated at home but re-admitted to the hospital earlier in the day, where he passed away after a few hours.

In February, Bapat came into public view when he stepped out to address a public rally for the BJP candidate Hemant Rasane in the Kasba Peth Assembly bypolls, but the party lost its bastion to the Congress-Maha Vikas Aghadi's nominee Ravindra Dhangekar.