Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and ex-MP Sushil Kumar Modi Wednesday revealed he has been suffering from cancer for the last six months and requested the BJP to relieve him of assignments related to the Lok Sabha elections. One of his close aides told The Indian Express: “It has been diagnosed as carcinoma of urinary tract with a potential to spread. He has been undergoing chemotherapy at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.” The 72-year-old leader, a member in the BJP’s election campaign committee, made the information public a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to launch the Bihar leg of the party’s campaign from Jamui. He said in a post in Hindi on social media platform X: “I have been battling with cancer for the last six months. I feel that now the time has come to make it public. I would not be able to do my work during the Lok Sabha polls. I have shared this with the PM. My gratitude to the country, Bihar and my party.” Party colleague and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “I am greatly pained to learn about SushilJi’s ailments. I wish him speedy recovery.” Prasad had started his political career with Sushil Modi — in the early 1970s, the latter was general secretary of Patna University Students Union while Prasad was its assistant secretary. RJD chief Lalu Prasad tweeted in Hindi: "I am shocked and saddened to hear the news about my brother Sushil Modi's health. I have known him for 50 years. He has a fighting and fighting nature. I pray that he gets well soon and resumes public service so that all can benefit from his long political experience." RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said: “Sushil Kumar Modi may have been our fiercest critic but his standing should be respected. We all wish him a speedy recovery.” Sushil Modi, who recently completed his Rajya Sabha tenure, had served as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister for over 11 years across two stints — the first from November 2005 to June 2013, and then from July 2017 to December 2020 — stitching up a formidable combination with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U). In his three-decade career, he was also an MLA, an MLC, a member of Lok Sabha and a Rajya Sabha MP. He emerged from the 1974 JP Movement, along with the likes of Lalu and Nitish, and was known to be the most influential BJP leader since Bihar BJP’s founder Kailashpati Mishra.
