Former Union minister Suresh Kalmadi dies at 81

• Congress veteran and former Union Minister Suresh Kalmadi passed away in Pune on January 6. He was 81.

• He had served as Union Minister of State for Railways and was a former president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

• Born in Madras in 1944, Kalmadi studied at Fergusson College in Pune, the city he went on to represent in the Parliament.

• He was an alumnus of NDA and an IAF pilot who participated in the 1971 India-Bangladesh war.

• He was appointed Pune Youth Congress chief and later developed close ties with Sanjay Gandhi and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

• After the Congress split in the late 1980s, Kalmadi stayed with the Indian National Congress and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1982, 1988, 1994 and 1998.

• He went on to serve as Union Minister of State for Railways from 1995 to 1996 in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government. 

• He was the only Union Minister of State for Railways to have presented a  Railway Budget. 

• In 1997, the Congress did not give him the ticket for Pune Lok Sabha, prompting him to form Pune Vilas Aghadi.

• The BJP supported him against Congress candidate Vithal Tupe, and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had come to campaign for Kalmadi and held a public meeting on the Fergusson College ground. Kalmadi, however, faced defeat in that election.

• Kalmadi’s tenure as Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief lasted from 1996 to 2011.

• Under his leadership, major sporting events, including the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, were organised, besides the National Games in several states.

• In 2011, allegations of corruption in the conduct of the Commonwealth Games were levelled against him, culminating in his arrest.

• However, in April 2025 the Enforcement Directorate filed a closure report in the case, giving him a clean chit.