NEW DELHI: Former MP and senior Congress leader Karuna Shukla died of COVID-19 at Ramkrishna CARE Hospitals, Raipur on April 27.
Notably, the niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was undergoing treatment for Covid-19 after she had tested positive for infection.
Expressing his grief, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel twitted in Hindi and said, ""My aunt Karuna Shukla is no more. The ruthless Corona took her as well. She has had a very close family relationship outside of politics and I continued to get her blessings. May God give her space in their shrines and we all have the power to bear her loss."
Meanwhile, the last rites will be performed today in Balodabazar.
Shukla (70) was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha and represented the Janjgir-Champa Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh.
She quit the BJP in 2013 claiming the party was under a grip of power politics. After having ended her 32-year-long association with the BJP, she joined the Congress in 2014 and contested the Lok Sabha election that year from the Bilaspur constituency but was defeated by BJP's Lakhan Lal Sahu.
She contested the 2018 Assembly election from Rajnandgaon and was defeated by former chief minister Raman.