NEW DELHI, 1 July 2007 — Sahib Singh Verma, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Delhi chief minister, died in a car accident yesterday. The accident happened when the car in which he was traveling collided with a truck in Alwar district of Rajasthan, about 165 km from Jaipur, yesterday afternoon. Verma, 64, was returning to Delhi from Neem ka Thana in Sikar district.
“The accident occurred at around 2:20 p.m. when a truck coming from the opposite side jumped the median and had a head-on collision with Verma’s car,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajesh Gupta said. Verma’s driver and security guard were also killed in the accident. Rescue teams had to struggle to extricate the bodies out of the wreckage.
Verma is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.
The BJP expressed shock at his death. BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani said: “It is a loss for the BJP and the farming community. It is saddening that a person 20 years younger to me has died in a road accident.”
“It is a big loss for the party and the country. He was a social activist who was highly respected. He had always raised his voice for the poor,” party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.
Verma was born on March 15, 1943 in a farmer’s family in Mundka village in Delhi. He began his career as a librarian in Bhagat Singh College of Delhi University.
From being a councilor in 1977, he rose in political ranks to become the federal labor minister in 2002. He was Delhi’s chief minister between 1996 and 98.
