According to police, Vallabhbhai Vaghasiya, a former Gujarat agriculture minister, was killed when the vehicle he was driving collided with a bulldozer close to Savarkundla town in the state’s Amreli district.
According to a Vanda police station official, the accident happened on Thursday night.
In the first term of the Vijay Rupani administration, 69-year-old Vaghasiya served as the agriculture and urban housing minister. He was a former BJP lawmaker from the Savarkundla assembly seat.
Around 8.30 p.m., an accident on a state highway close to Vanda village occurred as he was travelling back to Savarkundla from a village. The police official claimed that one passenger in the car with him was hurt.
The former minister was hurt when the vehicle he was driving collided with a bulldozer. He was taken to a hospital and later declared dead, according to the police.
After hearing about the accident, a sizable group of party leaders and his supporters gathered at the hospital.
“Former MLA of Savarkundla seat and ex-minister V V Vaghasiya died in a road accident. The leader who worked as a skilled organiser and a mass leader, and served the people of Amreli is no more with us. We pray for his departed soul and strength to his family to bear the loss,” said sitting BJP MLA from Savarkundla, Mahesh Kaswala.
Amreli MLA Kaushik Vekariya said that Vaghasiya will be remembered for his commitment to the welfare of the people of the region.
Vaghasiya had won the 2012 Assembly election as a BJP MLA from the Savarkundla seat, and was sworn in as a minister in the Vijay Rupani government in 2016.