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Congress Veteran Satish Sharma No More, Rahul Gandhi Among Pallbearers

Capt. Satish Sharma was the Petroleum Minister in the PM Narasimha Rao government from 1993 to 1996 and considered a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi.

 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi became one of the pallbearers for Captain Satish Sharma who is to be cremated today. Captain Satish Sharma died in Goa on Wednesday. He was considered close to the Gandhi family. Satish Sharma’s entry into politics was also due to former PM Rajiv Gandhi. Earlier, he worked as a pilot in an airline company. Sharma first got a chance to go to the Rajya Sabha in 1986. Not only this, after the death of Rajiv Gandhi, he won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat by-election.

Capt. Satish Sharma was the Petroleum Minister in the PM Narasimha Rao government from 1993 to 1996. During this time, there was a dispute about the allocation of petrol pumps. Not only this, but the Supreme Court had also cancelled the allocation of petrol pumps made by Sharma in 1997 and imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh. Although this penalty was later abolished by the court, Captain Sharma could never get out of the shadow of this dispute. While hearing the case, the Supreme Court had remarked, “It seems like Captain Sharma was king and petrol pumps were personal property for him.”

Captain Satish Sharma once again reached the Lok Sabha in 1999 after being elected as an MP from Amethi. However, this time he got the chance to go to Parliament from Rae Bareli seat instead of Amethi. This was the election when Sonia Gandhi decided to contest from Amethi. After this, in 2004, Captain Satish Sharma vacated the seat for Sonia Gandhi.

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