Senior BJP strongman Digamber Singh passed away on Friday morning after a prolonged illness. He was 66. The news of his death came as a rude shock for the party and CM Vasundhara Raje. Among the trustworthy allies of Raje, Singh was health minister during her previous tenure and was presently entrusted with the responsibility of 20-point programme vice-chairman, equivallent to the rank of a cabinet minister.
Singh, who was admitted to a private hospital in Jaipur on October 18, was suffering from swine flu. However, he had recovered from the flu bout but a prolonged case of cancer and history of hypertension resulted in several medical complications and eventually the end came due to multiple organ failure.
He was cremated later in the evening in his native district of Bharatpur amid a huge gathering of supporters and senior BJP leaders. Political leaders across party and state borders condoled his death. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a wreath. CM Raje visisted the beraved family at the hospital and later at their paternal home inBharatpur.
A prominent Jat face for the party, trustworthy of CM Raje, Digamber Singh graduated as doctor from government medical college of Jodhpur and was known as ‘doctor saab’ among his supporters. It was more because that despite being a politician, he never distanced himself from medical practice. “He was always a doctor at heart,” remembers a former school time friend, Dr LC Sharma.
Born on October 1, 1951 at a village in Bharatpur distrct, Digamber Singh was a brilliant student, also fond of music and singing. A person who never missed a chance to sing on stage during his college days. He never displayed political aspirants during his college days and was practicing as a doctor till his forties when a sequence of events inspired him to take up politics as a cause.
In politics too, he displayed brilliance and within a decade of stepping into the arena, he got elected from Deeg-Kumher assembly constituency and was appointed as the health minister. His tenure as a health minister is known for relatively less friction between health department and doctors. He will also be remembered for getting passed the bill to ensure safety of medical practitioners at hospitals. He consecutively won the seat in next election despite the anti-incumbency wave in state. He still continued to practice and was seen treating senior party leader Ghanshyam Tiwari while he developed complication during an assembly session. He even went to treat patients outside SMS hospital while the resident doctors were on strike during the tenure of Ashok Gehlot. His friend Dr. Sharma was superintendent of SMS hospital at that time. Dr Singh was, however, humble enough to leave the protest on plea of a former friend. However, he lost the election in 2013 and treatment of cancer kept him away from the state politics until Raje appointed him vice chairman of TPP in 2015.
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