Bihar observes day-long state mourning for its former governor Raghunandan Lal Bhatia

PATNA: Bihar on Sunday observed day-long state mourning in respect of its former governor Raghunandan Lal Bhatia who died of covid-19 at Amritsar on Saturday.
Earlier in the morning, CM Nitish Kumar while condoling the demise of Bhatia, announced daylong state mourning in respect of Bhatia across the state. Bhatia was 100 year old.
“Bhatia Ji served as governor of Bihar from 2008 to 2009. He was elected Lok Sabha member six times from Amritsar parliamentary constituency. His demise is very saddening. His death has caused an irreparable loss in the social and political circles,” Nitish said in his condolence message.
Bhatia was 100 year old, he would have turned 101 in July this year. He served as the Governor of Kerala from June 23, 2004 to July 10, 2008 and Governor of Bihar from July 11, 2008 to June 28, 2009.
A politician of clean image, Bhatia first contested the Lok Sabha by-elections in 1972 which was necessitated after the death of sitting MP Durga Das Bhatia, who was brother of Raghunandan Lal Bhatia. Later, Bhatia won the Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar in 1980, 1985, 1992, 1996 and 1999.
In a separate condolence message, the CM Nitish Kumar also mourned the death of former Rajya Sabha member and former Danapur MLA Vijay Singh Yadav. Yadav was a BJP leader.
Several BJP leaders including its state president Sanjay Jaiswal, state vice president and former MLA Rajib Ranjan, Patliputra MP Ram Kripal Yadav, BJP’s OBC Morcha’s national secretary Nikhil Anand, state general secretary and MLC Devesh Kumar, MLA Sanjiv Chaurasia, former minister Nitish Mishra and many others condoled the demise of Vijay Singh Yadav.