Congress legislator dies of cardiac arrest

BHOPAL - Former Madhya Pradesh minister and legislator Ratnesh Soloman died in the national capital following a cardiac arrest. He was 57.

Soloman, a minister in the Digvijay Singh government and elected to the assembly for the fourth time in 2008, was in Delhi when he got a heart attack while climbing stairs. He was rushed to the Escorts Heart Hospital where he breathed his last around 4 a.m., party sources said.

“The Congress has lost its true army man,” state Congress president Suresh Pachouri said, expressing his grief.

Soloman, who represented the Javera assembly segment, was also the brother-in-law of former Chhattisgarh minister Ajit Jogi.

“He was very close to me and my family. It is a big personal loss as well,” said Jogi.