Kushabhau Thakre, 82; Hindu Nationalist and Former Party President
Kushabhau Thakre, 82, a Hindu nationalist leader and former president of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, died Sunday in a New Delhi hospital of cancer.
Thakre was born and reared in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. He began his political career as a preacher in Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, or the National Volunteer Corps, the parent organization of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s BJP party.
Thakre took over as party president in 1998, the year Vajpayee assumed power at the head of a 19-party coalition.
Health problems forced Thakre to retire from public life, after quitting the party post in 2000.
He had suffered from kidney cancer, which eventually spread throughout his body.
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