Former Gujarat CM Keshubhai Patel dies of prolonged illness

Ahmedabad : Former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel died here on Thursday after a prolonged illness, family sources said.
Patel (92) had recovered from COVID-19 recently and was rushed to a hospital in Ahmedabad Thursday morning following health complications, the sources said.
Keshubhai was the state chief minister in 1995 and again during 1998-2001. Narendra Modi had succeeded him as Gujarat chief minister.
Keshubhai Patel was a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly six times. He quit the BJP in 2012 and floated the Gujarat Parivartan Party, which performed poorly in 2012 Assembly polls and merged with the BJP in 2014.
Born in Visavadar town of Junagadh district in 1928, Patel joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1945 as a pracharak. He started his political career as a worker for the Jan Sangh.
“Though he recently recovered from coronavirus, his health kept deteriorating due to post-Covid effects in the body,” said Patel’s son Bharat Patel.
“We rushed him to a hospital here after his health deteriorated today morning. Though doctors tried hard, he could not survive,” Patel told reporters.
Patel was also the chairman of the Shree Somnath Trust, which manages the famous Somnath temple in Saurashtra region.