Darjeeling, Jan. 19: A veteran communist leader of the hills, Harka Bahadur Rai, who was elected to the Assembly twice, passed away in a Siliguri nursing home today.

The 73-year-old was admitted to the nursing home with anaemia yesterday and breathed his last around noon today. Rai is survived by his son and two daughters, said D.S. Bomzom, the spokesperson of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CRPM), the outfit the leader had founded in 1996.

Rai quit the CPM and formed the CPRM along with leaders like R.B. Rai, a former MP of Darjeeling, protesting the Left party’s refusal to grant separate statehood to the hills.

A resident of Dooteria tea garden, Rai was the MLA of Kurseong in 1982 and 1987. “He was also a member of the CPM’s state committee,” said Bomzom. He had participated during the first labour apprising in the hills on June 25, 1955. “During the movement, six persons had died in a police firing at the Margaret Hope garden near Kurseong.”

Roshan Giri, general secretary, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, has condoled Rai’s death. “We pray for the soul,” he said.