Former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani died on Thursday after an Air India aircraft carrying him and 241 others crashed near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport airport in Ahmedabad in the afternoon, Union minister C R Paatil said.
"This is a very sad incident. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. We have lost two-time former chief minister Vijay Rupani in the crash, which is very sad news for the BJP family," Paatil, the Union Jal Shakti minister and chief of the party's state unit, told reporters.
Rupani, 68, was CM for two terms from August 7, 2016 to September 11, 2021, after winning the Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections from Rajkot West seat. He was presently the BJP's in charge for Punjab.
The London-bound flight AI 171 was carrying 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian national, apart from two pilots and 10 cabin crew members.