Thousands of tearful eyes bid a last farewell to Badshahpur MLA Rakesh Daulatabad on Sunday. He died of a cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Gurugram on Saturday morning. He was about 44. He is survived by his wife and two sons, aged 21 and 17. The last rites were performed on Sunday with full state honours in the ancestral village Daulatabad.   Several senior politicians paid their condolences to the bereaved family. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini, former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and several others posted their condolences on social media platform X.   Daulatabad had contested elections from Badshahpur assembly constituency thrice in 2009, 2014 and 2019 but won the Assembly election in 2019. Badshahpur falls under the Gurugram Lok Sabha constituency. In 2019, Daultabad, who contested as an independent candidate had defeated BJPs Manish Yadav by a margin of 10,157 votes.   Being an independent MLA, he had supported the BJP in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. He was given the responsibility of chairman of Haryana Agricultural Industries Development Corporation.   It has been learnt that Daultabad was unwell for the past few days. He was admitted to Manipal hospital late on Friday evening after he complained of chest pain. He suffered a cardiac arrest and the doctors declared him dead Saturday morning.   He was known for his social works in the Badshahpur assembly segment. From providing free ambulance services to the patients to financing the education of the poor and downtrodden were among a few of the works that Daultabad was known for.   With Daulatabads death, the current strength of Haryana Vidhan Sabha has further been reduced to 87. In the 90-member Haryana state legislative assembly, two MLAs, including Manohar Lal Khattar and Ranjit Singh, had earlier resigned from their respective seats. Both are contesting the Lok Sabha elections on BJP tickets from Karnal and Hisar, respectively.   As per the current strength of the House, the majority mark is 44. The BJP, which has 40 MLAs and the support of two others — Independent MLA Nayan Pal Rawat of Prithla and Gopal Kanda of Haryana Lokhit Party, stands two short of the magic number. The Congress has 30 MLAs, the Jannayak Janta Party has 10 and the Indian National Lok Dal has one. Apart from that there are four other Independents not supporting the BJP.

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