Former Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma passes away

Dr Baghi said: “Kamal was diagnosed with a heart problem two years ago, and got a stent placement at Ludhiana’s DMCH. Since then, he had been taking precautions.”

Sharma is survived by his wife Shashi Sharma, a son and a daughter. Before leaving for the morning walk, he had greeted people for Diwali through his Twitter handle.

His body will be cremated Monday at 11 am in Ferozepur, said Subodh Verma, BJP president of Fazilka district.
A childhood friend of Sharma, Bhagat Singh, said he had joined Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP, when he was 13.

“Kamal was born on March 17, 1970 and did his schooling from Ferozepur. He was from an ordinary family, his father was worked in Ferozepur’s divisional railway office. In his student life, he was very fond of cricket and we played together. In 1986, when he was only 16 years old, he joined ABVP, and through his work, became organisational secretary of ABVP Punjab and later the National Secretary of ABVP. For eight years, he devoted himself fully to ABVP and was cut off from family life. He came back to his family in 1998 and got married to Shashi in 2000.”

Sharma also worked as advisor to former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Bhagat Singh said he had been in the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran manch too. During the 2007 Punjab Assembly polls, he came in contact with Arun Jaitely, who encouraged him to join active politics.

Sharma worked as BJP’s state president from 2013-2016, before handing over charge to former BJP minister Vijay Sampla. Two days ago, Sharma was in Delhi, when the BJP-JJP meeting regarding government formation in Haryana was on. In an interaction with The Indian Express then, he had hailed the BJP-JJP coalition.

Sharma was fond of singing too. In April this year, he had recorded a video song, ‘Jallianwale Bagh da saka’, along with his daughter, and released it on the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre centenary.