Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi died on 13 May, 2024, Monday night at AIIMS, New Delhi, aged 72. Sushil Kumar Modi was battling cancer for the past eight months. Hospital sources said he breathed his last at 9:45 p.m.
Sushil Modi Death
Senior BJP leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi died aged 72 this Monday evening. He was suffering from cancer. Politicians across party lines mourned him and called his death an irreparable loss for Bihar politics.
Last month, Sushil Modi had announced that he would not be participating in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign for the Lok Sabha election due to his illness. His absence was expected to be felt in Bihar, where he had considerable influence on the party and built over three decades.
Sushil Kumar Modi ji’s entire life was dedicated to Bihar, Sushil Modi efforts have been very helpful in bringing Bihar out of the jungle raj and putting it on the path of development. His absence is an irreparable loss for countless worker’s and his work for the development of Bihar will always be remembered.
Sushil Kumar Modi Political Career
Sushil Kumar Modi’s political career started as a student activist at Patna University. He became The General Secretary from Patna University Student Union in 1973. He became a Member of Bihar Pradesh Student Sangharsh Samiti and spearheaded the famous Bihar Student’s movement of 1974.
He challenged the constitutional validity of the MISA Act in the Supreme Court of India which resulted in section 9, The MISA Act being struck down as unconstitutional. He was booked under the MISA and various other acts from 1973 to 1977, during The Emergency. From 1977 to 1986, he held various types of leadership positions in the ABVP.
Concerned about the issue of foreign infiltration from Bangladesh in the bordering districts of Bihar he raised the issue and after Assam, a movement against foreign infiltration was launched in Bihar under his leadership.
In 1990, he joined active politics and successfully contested from The Patna Central Assembly. He was re-elected in 1995 and 2000. In 1990, he was made the Chief Whip of BJP Bihar Legislature Party. From 1996 to 2004 he was the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly.
He filed the Public Interest Litigation in the Patna High Court against Lalu Prasad Yadav, which was later known as the Fodder scam. He became a member of Lok Sabha in 2004, and represented the constituency of Bhagalpur. Sushil Kumar Modi is the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in the short lived Nitish Kumar government in 2000.
In the 2005 Bihar election, NDA came to power and Sushil kumar Modi was elected the leader of Bihar BJP Legislature Party. He resigned from the Lok Sabha and took over as a Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. After NDA victory in 2010 during Bihar elections, he continued to be the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
In 2017, Sushil Kumar Modi was the main player behind the fall of the JDU- RJD Grand Alliance government in Bihar, with his continuous against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family for months over his alleged benami properties and irregular financial transactions of Sushil Kumar Modi’s. Sushil Kumar Modi was Nitish Kumar’s deputy Chief Minister for 11 years and the duo was often referred to as Ram- Laxman ki jodi in the political circle of Bihar.
On 8 December 2020, he was elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha from Bihar to fill the vacant seat after Ram Vilas Paswan’s death. He became one of the few Indian leaders who have been a member of both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha both.
Sushil Kumar Modi Early life and Education
Sushil Kumar Modi was born on 5 January 1995. He was born to Moti Lal Modi and his mother Ratna Devi. He attended Patna Science College and graduated with a B.Sc (Hons) Botany Degree in 1973. He enrolled in the M.Sc. Botany Course from the Patna University but left the course midway to join the social movement started by Jai Prakash Narayan.
Sushil Kumar Modi married Jessie George on 13 August 1986, his wife was a college professor with whom he had two sons.
On 3 April 2024, Sushil Kumar Modi revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer six months previously and would not take part in the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign for the General Election of 2024.
Sushil Kumar Modi’s Achievements and Positions in Politics
Sushil Kumar Modi appointed the State Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad after the Emergency. From 1977 to 1986, he held various types of leadership positions in the ABVP.
During his tenure at ABVP he led a movement against the declaration of Urdu as a second Language of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He was appointed the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Minister for the Implementation of Goods and Service Tax in July 2011.
| Period | Position |
| 1973 to 1977 | General Secretary, Patna University Student Union |
| 1983 to 1986 | Indian’s General Secretary and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad |
| 1995 to 1996 | Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 1996 to 2004 | Leader of Opposition |
| 2000 | Minister, Parliamentary Affairs |
| 2004 | Member, Lok Sabha |
| 1990 to 2004 | Member, Bihar Legislative Assembly |
| 2004 to 2005 | Member, Fourteenth Lok Sabha |
| November 2005 to June 2013 | Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar |
| November 2005 to June 2013 | Finance Minister of Bihar |
| 2013 to 2017 | Leader of Opposition |
| 2017 to 13 November 2020 | Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar |
| 7 December 2020 | Member, Rajya Sabha |