COVID second wave claims life of third BJP Minister in UP

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Revenue and Flood Control, Vijay Kashyap succumbed to COVID-19 at Medanta hospital in Gurgaon on Tuesday.

He was the MLA from Muzaffarnagar's Charthawal Assembly seat and was 56 years old. He is also the third minister in UP who has succumbed to the disease. Earlier, two ministers veteran cricketer Chetan Chauhan and Kamla Rani Varun had died last year.

Prime minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh expressed grief over the demise of the BJP leader.

"The death of BJP leader and minister in the Uttar Pradesh government Vijay Kashyap ji is very saddening. He was a leader connected to the grassroots and was always devoted to public interest works. My condolences to his family and supporters in this moment of grief. Om Shanti!" PM Modi tweeted in Hindi.

"Kashyap, an MLA from Charthawal, was a popular leader who discharged his duties diligently as a minister. In his death, people have lost their true well-wisher," Yogi Adityanath said in a release.

Kashyap is the fifth BJP legislator who has lost life in the second wave of COVID. Earlier, Salon legislator Dal Bahadur Kori, Kesar Singh Gangwar (Nawabganj), Ramesh Diwakar (Auraiya) and Suresh Kumar Srivastava (Lucknow West) had succumbed to the infection.