Newly elected Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Gasti dies of Covid-19

BJP's Ashok Gasti, an “ordinary party worker” who got elected to the Rajya Sabha just four months ago, died Thursday due to multiorgan failure after contracting Covid-19.

Gasti, 55, was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June along with BJP's Eranna Kadadi, Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda.

Also read: Irrigation, preventing migration my priorities, says Ashok Gasti

In a statement, Manipal Hospital director Dr Manish Rai said Gasti was admitted with "severe Covid-19 pneumonia" on September 2. He passed away at 10.31 pm on Thursday. “He was critically ill with multi-organ failure and was on life support system in the Intensive care unit under constant observation by our expert panel of doctors,” the hospital said.

Hailing from Raichur, Gasti was a lawyer and BJP worker for over three decades. Little was known about him until he was given the Rajya Sabha ticket, which raised eyebrows because he was just an "ordinary party worker." Gasti, who belonged to the Savita Samaja community, was also the BJP Backward Classes Morcha president.

Gasti joined the ABVP in 1982 and the RSS in 1987. He also served as the BJP's Raichur district unit president, chairman of the Devaraj Urs Backward Classes Development Corporation and also headed the State Backward Classes Commission.

In an interview to DH, Gasti had said that he wanted to focus on increasing land under cultivation in the Krishan and Tungabhadra basins in the backward Kalyana Karnataka districts. He also wanted to address the problem of migration by creating jobs.

Earlier in the day, as news about his serious condition spread, several political leaders jumped the gun to issue condolences via tweets. This included Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, the official Karnataka BJP handle, Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar among others.