Senior BJP Leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra Passes Away

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra passed away at the age of 94. He breathed his last at AIIMS in Delhi. Born on 3 December 1931 in Lahore, now in Pakistan, Malhotra moved to Delhi during the partition and later entered politics through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

A veteran leader, he was associated with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and later the BJP. He served as President of the Delhi Pradesh Jan Sangh from 1972 to 1975, and twice as the Delhi BJP President between 1977–80 and 1980–84. Malhotra was a five-time Member of Parliament and a two-time MLA.

His most prominent electoral victory came in 1999, when he defeated then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh from the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat.

Even at the age of 82, he played a key role in the 2014 Delhi election campaign, which saw the BJP win all seven Lok Sabha seats in the capital. In 2015, he was appointed Chairman of the All India Council of Sports (AICS) with the rank of Minister of State.