Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Dr Shafiqur Rahman Barq died on Tuesday morning in a private hospital here.
Barq, 94, was the country’s oldest MP.
He was admitted to the hospital on January 29. He had a kidney infection. Earlier, he had also undergone treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram.
On February 21, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also came to the hospital to enquire about his health condition.
The SP chief has expressed condolences on his demise. In the first list of SP itself, Barq was made the party candidate from Sambhal. His grandson Ziaur Rahman Barq is SP MLA from Kundarki assembly seat of Moradabad district.
A native of Sambhal, Barq, started politics when he came in contact with Chaudhary Charan Singh in 1967. He became MLA from Sambhal in 1974 from Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD). After this, he became MLA from Lok Dal in 1985 and Janata Dal in 1989. He was also the minister of Home Guard department in Mulayam government in 1995 after he joined the SP.
In 1996, he won the Moradabad Parliamentary seat on an SP ticket. He has been MP from here for three consecutive terms. After this, in 2009 he became MP on a BSP ticket from Sambhal but lost in the 2014 elections. In 2019, he won from Sambhal constituency on SP symbol.
Barq was also the convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee.