Former Punjab deputy CM Balramji Dass Tandon passes away at the age of 90

Chhattisgarh governor and former Punjab deputy chief minister Balramji Dass Tandon passed away at the age of 90 in Raipur on Tuesday.

He was admitted to Dr B R Ambedkar Memorial Hospital in Raipur after he complained of uneasiness on Tuesday morning.

A loyal RSS worker, Tandon was the linchpin of the alliance between Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP, formerly Jan Sangh. He was Punjab deputy chief minister in the Justice (retd) Gurnam Singh Akali Dal-Jan Sangh ministry in 1969-70 . He also served as a cabinet minister in 1977-79 and in 1997-2002 in the ministries headed by Parkash Singh Badal.

Tandon was a founding member of the Jan Sangh in 1951, and served as secretary of Punjab Jan Sangh from 1951 to 1957, and as president of the Punjab BJP from 1995-97. He remained a legislator from Amritsar for a record five times from 1960 to 1977.

He fought and won from the Rajpura assembly constituency in 1997. He was imprisoned in 1975 during the Emergency for 19 months.

Tandon was appointed the governor of Chhattisgarh in July 2014.

His wife Brijpal Tandon, who was also an activist in the freedom movement, got married to him in 1958. His son, Sanjay Tandon, is the current president of the Chandigarh unit of BJP.

First Published: Aug 14, 2018 15:03 IST