Bhopal, July 26

Former Rajya Sabha member and senior BJP leader Prabhat Jha passed away on Friday in a hospital in Gurgugram after a prolonged illness, party sources said.

He was 67.

Jha is survived by wife and two sons, they said.

The Bihar-born Jha started his career as a journalist from Gwalior. He later joined the BJP and rose to become the party's Madhya Pradesh president in 2010.

He was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from MP in 2008 and remained in the Upper House till 2020. Jha also served as the BJP's national vice president in 2015, the party sources said.

His last rites would be performed in his ancestral village in Bihar on Saturday, they said.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, MP BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma and senior Congress leader KK Mishra among others expressed grief over his death.