Gandhinagar: Former member of Lok Sabha Prabhatsinh Chauhan passed away today. He was 82. Prabhatsinh started his career as Sarpanch of Mehlol gram panchayat in 1980. He then became Taluka panchayat member of Godhra. He became member of Gujarat Assembly for four times after 1990. He was Deputy Minister and Minister of State in the State government. He was elected to Lok Sabha in year 2009. He had rejoined Congress party last year over denial of ticket to contest the assembly polls by ruling BJP.

Prabhatsinh was upset with BJP since 2017 when BJP denied a ticket to his wife from Kalol assembly seat in Panchmahal district. The party had instead given a ticket to his daughter from Kalol seat. Prabhatsinh had threatened to contest as independent if his wife was not given a ticket. Prabhatsinh was elected from the Kalol seat as Congress MLA during 1980-85. He was denied a ticket from Congress in 1985. He had joined BJP in 1991 after the Godhra Madresa riots in which Hindu teachers were killed. He was enrolled in BJP in 1992 by then Gujarat BJP chief Shankersinh Vaghela. He had contested from Kalol seat in 1995. He had won from Kalol as MLA in 1998, 2002 and he was made Minister of State too in Modi led Govt. In 2009 and 2014 he won the Lok Sabha election from the Pamchnahal seat.

Prabhatsinh’s daughter-in-law, Sumanben Chauhan was BJP MLA from Kalol seat in previous term. Prabhatsinh was dropped and not given BJP ticket to contest from Panchmahal seat in 2019 Lok Sabha election. Prabhatsinh had threatened to contest as independent, but later dropped the plan after he was convinced by BJP.

Prabhatsinh had last year contested the State assembly election on Congress ticket and had got 26,007 votes (13.77% of total) against winning BJP candidate of BJP, Fatehsinh Chauhan who got 1,41,686 votes (75.03%).

Prabhatsinh’s funeral procession will commence from his residence in Mahelal ni Muvadi in the morning on 27 October. DeshGujarat