Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's mother, Kashibai, passed away on Friday morning while undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhopal, news agency IANS reported. She was about 76 years old and had been admitted to the hospital for the past week due to a respiratory ailment.

Source: IANS via Hi India

As her condition worsened, she was placed on ventilator support, IANS reported. Chouhan announced the passing in a post on X, describing the day as one of profound sorrow for the entire family and saying that a mother's departure leaves a void that can never be filled.

According to the family, her last rites will be performed at 3 pm on Friday at Jait, the family's ancestral village in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh. Chouhan is expected to reach Sehore for the last rites, and several senior BJP functionaries are likely to visit Jait, IANS reported.

Following the news, Chouhan cancelled all his scheduled engagements, including a farmers' conference in Raisen that he was to attend on Friday, and all his subsequent programmes have also been called off.

Condolences poured in across party lines. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, BJP state president Hemant Khandelwal, Congress leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Madhya Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar were among those who expressed grief and prayed for strength for the bereaved family.

Source: Nation Press

IANS reported that Chouhan's biological mother, Sundarbai, had passed away during his childhood, after which his father Prem Singh married Kashibai, who took on the responsibility of raising the children. Kashibai resided in the Saket Nagar area of Bhopal and had been in poor health for some time. Chouhan is the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development, and earlier served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.