Patna, Oct. 4: Bihar lost two of its senior politicians within a gap of 24 hours.

Former chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad and state panchayati raj minister Hari Prasad Sah died in Delhi while undergoing treatment.

Sah, 74, who suffered a brain haemorrhage about a week ago, died around 10.30pm on Monday.

He was highly respected among his colleagues for his integrity. Sah was a close associate of former chief minister, late Karpoori Thakur. His body was brought to Patna this morning where chief minister Nitish Kumar, Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary and other leaders paid floral tribute to the departed leader.

His body was taken to the Assembly and to the state JD(U) office before being sent to his native home in Madhubani for cremation. The state government has declared two days of mourning.

The death of Bhagwat Jha Azad, aged 89, signifies the end of an era of Congress political stalwarts from Bihar who were also freedom fighters. Jha died on Tuesday morning at AIIMS. He is survived by three sons, including cricketer-turned BJP MP Kirti Azad. He represented Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituency for six terms and was a deputy Union minister in the cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. When Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980, Azad refused to take oath as a Union minister of state stressing that he had been an MP since 1952.

However, it was his tenure as chief minister of Bihar from February 18, 1988 to March 10, 1989 that brought him into the limelight. He succeeded late Bindeshwari Dubey as chief minister and was virtually “air-dropped” by All India Congress Committee in Patna on the night of February 17. “Though we thronged to Patna airport to welcome the man who would beco-me our chief minister, none of us knew who the man was until we saw him getting down the plane,” recalled a politician who was a Congress MLA then.

Azad’s short tenure as chief minister was known for his fight against the co-operative and coal mafia. However, he appeared to have made more enemies than friends in the process and soon hostilities were apparent between him and then speaker, late Shivchandar Jha (who too hailed from Bhagalpur). and then governor of Bihar, late Govind Narayan Singh. Soon, number of Congress MLAs demanding his removal swelled and his own partymen staged a protest against him, sporting Gandhi caps inside Assembly and marched to Raj Bhavan, demanding his ouster.

However, when Azad was removed by AICC, there was a public perception that he had been removed by AICC under pressure of corrupt elements. “Had Azad been allowed to continue as chief minister for some more time, the Congress would have been in a better position in the state than it is now,” said senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra.