Former Himachal Pradesh BJP minister Kishan Kapoor dies at 73; JP Nadda says ‘irreparable loss’

BJP national president J P Nadda described Kishan Kapoor as a “soft-spoken, sociable, and visionary leader. Nadda, who shared a close bond with and had the opportunity to work alongside him in the Assembly, called his demise a “personal and irreparable loss”.

Kishan Kapoor won the Lok Sabha elections 2019 from the Kangra constituency by a record margin of 4.77 lakh votes against Congress candidate Pawan Kajal. Despite deteriorating health, he remained involved in party activities. He attended the nomination filing of his successor, Rajiv Bhardwaj, who won the Kangra seat in 2024 by defeating senior Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma by 2,51,895 votes.

Kapoor is survived by his wife, a son, and a married daughter. His son, Shashwat Kapoor, serves as the state vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP. Kapoor’s last rites will be performed on Sunday at his ancestral village in Dharamshala.

Kishan Kapoor started with Jan Sangh in 1970

Kapoor had a long political career, starting with Jan Sangh in 1970. After the formation of the BJP in 1980, he became the president of the Dharamshala mandal in 1982. He was first elected as an MLA from Dharamshala in 1990 and re-elected in 1993. He served as the party’s chief whip in the Assembly and was also the president of the Kangra district from 1995 to 1997.

As a Himachal Pradesh minister, he held important portfolios like law, transport, town and country planning, and urban development in the Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP governments from 1998 to 2003 and 2007 to 2012. He also held portfolios of food and civil supplies and consumer affairs in the Jai Ram Thakur government from 2017 to 2022.

BJP state in-charge Shrikant Sharma, state president Dr Rajeev Bindal, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Jairam Thakur, state co-in-charge Sanjay Tandon, and former state presidents Maheshwar Singh, Suresh Chandel, Suresh Bhardwaj, Satpal Singh Satti and Suresh Kashyap expressed condolences to Kapoor’s family.

Rajya Sabha MPs Indu Goswami and Dr Sikander Kumar, Harsh Mahajan, Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur, Dr Rajeev Bhardwaj, Kangana Ranaut, Kangra parliamentary constituency in-charge, MLA Vipin Parmar, Hamirpur parliamentary constituency in-charge, MLA Vikram Thakur, Mandi parliamentary constituency in-charge, BJP state vice-president Govind Thakur, Shimla parliamentary constituency in-charge, MLA Sukhram Chaudhary, and state general secretaries Trilok Kapoor and Bihari Lal Sharma also expressed deep sorrow over the passing of Kapoor.