NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader and former MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra passed away at AIIMS New Delhi on Tuesday morning, said a statement from the hospital. He was 93.Malhotra, a five-time Member of Parliament and two-time MLA from Delhi, was among the most prominent faces of the BJP and its predecessor, the Jan Sangh, in the capital. He was also the president of the Delhi unit of the BJP.“Malhotra’s life was an example of simplicity and public service and he did much work for the expansion of Jan Sangh in Delhi,” the party said in the statement reported news agency PTI.Incidentally, his demise came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Delhi BJP’s permanent office at DDU Marg, a development the party had awaited for years.A significant highlight of Malhotra’s political career was his 1999 Lok Sabha election victory, where he defeated former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by a large margin. In the 2004 general elections, he was the only BJP candidate to win a parliamentary seat in Delhi, with the Congress sweeping the remaining six.Malhotra remained a key figure in Delhi politics for over four decades and played a major role in building the party’s base in the city.
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