Ranchi: The last rites of late Jharkhand Minister Sudivya Kumar Sonu were performed with full state honours in Giridih on Sunday.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren, along with ministers, several public representatives, and senior party leaders, paid their final respects to the late Jharkhand Minister.
Additionally, the state government has declared a two-day state mourning period on September 6 and 7, according to an official order issued by the Cabinet Secretariat and Monitoring Department on Sunday.
During the mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast on all state buildings where the national flag is regularly flown. No state functions will be held in the state during the mourning period.
The government has also decided that all state government offices will remain completely closed tomorrow (September 7). A government order to this effect has been sent to all senior administrative and police officials in the state and to the Union Home Ministry as well.
Sudivya Kumar Sonu, Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Higher and Technical Education, Tourism, Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Departments of the Jharkhand government, died on Sunday morning at Mercy Hospital in Giridih. He was 56 years old.
His health suddenly deteriorated late Saturday night. He was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he died during treatment. According to doctors, he died due to a heart attack.
The sudden demise of Sudivya Kumar Sonu has cast a pall of gloom over Jharkhand’s political circles. He was a second-consecutive MLA from the Giridih Sadar Assembly constituency. He won the Assembly elections for the first time in 2019 and was re-elected in 2024.
He was appointed a cabinet minister in the government formed under the leadership of Hemant Soren in December 2024. He held important portfolios such as Urban Development and Housing, Higher and Technical Education, Tourism, Art, Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs. He was also the Central General Secretary of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
A longtime party member, Sonu was considered a close and trusted political aide of Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
(IANS)
