Virjibhai Thummar

Virjibhai Keshavbhai Thummar was born on 31 May 1959 at Vavdi Road in Amreli district, in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. His father was Keshavbhai Thummar and his mother was Santokben. He grew up in a farming family, and farming remained part of his identity throughout his life: his official parliamentary biography listed his main profession as agriculturist, with trading as a second occupation. As a young man he enjoyed cricket, volleyball and kabaddi, and he remained a lifelong listener of old Hindi film songs.

Thummar was educated at K.K. Parekh Commerce College in Amreli, where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) degree.

Before and alongside his electoral career, Thummar built his base in rural Amreli through farmers' issues and co-operatives. Amreli district Congress president Pratap Dudhat said he started public life as a farmer leader and became a district panchayat member at a young age. His Lok Sabha biography records about twenty years of work for farmers on electricity, water and crop insurance, pursued with both the Government of Gujarat and the Government of India. He was chairman of the Vavdi Road Seva Sahakari Society from 1986 and the founder and chairman of the Kunkavav Nagrik Co-operative Bank. He served as a director of IFFCO from 2001 to 2004, and as a director of NAFED, the Gujarat State Consumer Co-operative Federation, the Amreli Jila Sahakari Sangh and the Kunkavav taluka sales and purchase union. He was a trustee of IFFCO's Kisan Sewa Fund Trust and a delegate to KRIBHCO and IFFCO. In civic life he was president of the Lions Club of Amreli from 1987 and a trustee of the Sardar Patel Seva Trust.

Thummar was first elected to the Gujarat Legislative Assembly from Babra in 1990 on a Janata Dal ticket, and won Babra again in 1995 as a Congress candidate. In the 2004 general election he took the Amreli Lok Sabha seat for the Indian National Congress, polling 220,649 votes against 218,619 for the BJP's Dileep Sanghani, a margin of 2,030. He sat in the 14th Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009, where he raised farmers' problems, irrigation, crop insurance and regional development. Within the party he served as a general secretary of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee. He contested Amreli again in 2014 and finished second with 280,483 votes to the BJP's Naranbhai Kachhadiya, who won by 155,994 votes. In the 2017 Assembly election he won Lathi in Amreli district with 64,743 votes, defeating the BJP's Gopalbhai Vastarpara by 9,343 votes, and served as MLA until 2022. In the 2022 election he lost Lathi to the BJP's Janak Talaviya, who received 64,866 votes to Thummar's 35,592. Even out of office he remained an active and combative voice for the Congress in Amreli.

Thummar married Nilaben on 25 February 1982. Their only child, Jenny Thummar, studied for an MBA in London before returning to Gujarat and entering politics around 2015. She became a member and then president of the Amreli district panchayat, was appointed president of the Gujarat Pradesh Mahila Congress, and was the Congress candidate for Amreli in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which she lost to the BJP's Bharat Sutariya. The Times of India noted in 2024 that Amreli was perhaps the only seat in the country where a father, a mother and their daughter had all contested elections, as Nilaben had also stood for the seat and lost. The family's permanent address was in Amreli, and in his last period of illness he was treated while staying in his native village.

Thummar's politics centred on farmers and rural Saurashtra: electricity and irrigation water, crop insurance, co-operative credit and fair prices. He was known for an aggressive style and for sharp attacks on the ruling BJP. Defending his December 2023 remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said his intention was to raise the voice of the public, and that the ruling party should listen to it.

Thummar was one of the few Congress politicians to win the Amreli Lok Sabha seat after 1991, and one of the party's best known Patidar leaders in Saurashtra. Party colleagues described him as a leader who was always available to rural workers and farmers. After his death Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda called it a great loss for the Congress family and for Gujarat, and Pratap Dudhat said his absence left a void that could never be filled. His daughter Jenny Thummar carries the family's political work forward in Amreli.

Thummar was a regular presence on Gujarati television news, from interviews on Sandesh News during his Lok Sabha years to Assembly debates on irrigation law and his reaction to an increase in Gujarat MLAs' salaries, covered by ABP Asmita. News of his death on 7 October 2026 led Gujarati channels including Zee 24 Kalak, ABP Asmita, TV9 Gujarati and Gujarat Tak.

In June 2009 Junagadh police arrested Thummar and seven of his relatives over the Saurashtra Kisan Vikas Trust, which he had reportedly floated in 2005 and 2006 for farmers' welfare. Farmers alleged that they had paid membership fees and deposits to the trust in the hope of low interest agricultural loans; the case began with a complaint filed on 10 December 2007. The reports reviewed for this page do not record the final outcome of the case. In April 2014, while he was the Congress candidate for Amreli, video clips circulated on WhatsApp that appeared to show him discussing payments to a local Aam Aadmi Party candidate to split pro BJP votes; DeshGujarat, which published them, said it could not vouch for their authenticity. In December 2023 Amreli city police registered a non-cognisable offence of defamation and intentional insult against him on a BJP complaint, after he called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "dalal" (broker) at a Congress Sneh Samvad meeting on 22 December. Thummar in turn complained that BJP leaders, including MP Naranbhai Kachhadiya, had burned his effigies and insulted him, and he sought police protection.

Thummar had been living with cancer for about four years and had been receiving treatment while staying in his native village. He died at his residence in Amreli at about 12:15 pm on Wednesday 7 October 2026, aged 67, as confirmed by Amreli district Congress president Pratap Dudhat to the Press Trust of India. His funeral procession left his home in Amreli at 5 pm that day, joined by political leaders from Amreli and across Saurashtra. Shaktisinh Gohil paid tribute to him as a close friend, Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda called his death a great loss to the Congress family and to Gujarat, and condolences also came from Jagdish Thakor, AAP leader Isudan Gadhvi and leaders of the BJP. Some early reports gave his age as 64; his parliamentary record gives his date of birth as 31 May 1959, making him 67.