Agartala, Dec 28 (IANS): Veteran Tripura politician and sitting BJP MLA Surajit Datta has died after a prolonged illness, party and family sources said on Thursday. He was 69.

Elected from the Ramnagar Assembly Constituency in West Tripura district for a record seven times, Datta, a former minister in the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity alliance government (1988-1993), died at a Kolkata hospital on Wednesday midnight.

He is survived by a daughter and wife.

Datta, who was suffering from various ailments for the past few years, was admitted to a hospital here earlier this week and later shifted to a Kolkata hospital, where he breathed his last.

His body was brought here from Kolkata on Thursday afternoon and after paying tributes at the Civil Secretariat, Assembly, the BJP party office, a big condolence rally with the body went around the Agartala city before cremation at the Battala mass cremation ground with full state honours.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, BJP President J.P. Nadda, CPI-M Tripura state Secretary Jitendra Choudhury, state Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha and many other leaders condoled the death.

Popularly known as ‘Sunu Daa’, Datta was also the state President of Congress and was briefly in Trinamool Congress before joining the BJP in 2017. Before joining the Congress in 1979, Datta was a member of CPI-M’s youth and student wing.