Karni Sena founder Lokendra Singh Kalvi dies in Rajasthan

Jaipur: Rajput leader and Karni Sena founder Lokendra Singh Kalvi passed away at a state-run hospital here on Tuesday.

Family sources said he suffered a cardiac arrest late in the night and breathed his last. Kalvi was admitted to the Sawai Man Singh Hospital for the past few days.

His funeral was conducted at his ancestral village, Kalvi, in Nagaur district.

His elder son Bhawani Singh lit the funeral pyre.

Food and civil supplies minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, RTDC chairman Dharmendra Rathore and other leaders paid floral tributes to Kalvi before the funeral.

Earlier, Governor Kalraj Mishra, BJP state president Satish Poonia, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Shri Kshatriya Yuvak Sangh patron Bhagwan Singh Rolsahabsar and other leaders expressed condolences on the demise of Kalvi.

Kalvi suffered a brain stroke in June last year and he was not well since then.

The son of former Union minister Kalyan Singh Kalvi, Lokendra was the patron of Shree Rajput Karni Sena, which had led the 2018 protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film “Padmaavat” for alleged distortion of historical facts.

He had also been a national-level basketball player.