Crashes are not new in Indian politics
India has lost many of her leaders in air crashes, prominent being Madhavrao Scindia, Sanjay Gandhi and more recently TDP's GMC Balayogi.
The deaths of Haryana ministers OP Jindal and Surender Singh Thursday in a chopper crash in Uttar Pradesh adds one more grim chapter in the book of similar accidents of prominent political personalities.
Several leaders, both young and old, have been killed in private aircraft - most at the peak of their careers.
So too with Haryana power minister and steel magnate OP Jindal and agriculture minister Surender Singh, who had been sworn in barely two weeks ago on March 15, marking the return of the Congress after nine years in opposition.
Jindal recently figured for the first time in Forbes' list of billionaires.
The Congress has suffered huge blows earlier as well.
Sanjay Gandhi, younger son of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and widely seen as her successor, died in 1980 when his plane crashed in New Delhi. He was only 33.
The party's high profile leader and Gwalior's royal family scion Madhavrao Scindia also died at the prime of his life at age 56 when his private aircraft crashed near Mota village in Uttar Pradesh in 2001. His end came at a time he was viewed by some as the party's prime ministerial candidate.
Of course, it is not just the Congress that has lost its stars.
In March 2002, the Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) GMC Balayogi, India's first Dalit to be elected Lok Sabha speaker, was killed in a similar disaster in Andhra Pradesh's Krishna district. He was 50.
And most recently, during the run-up to the general election in May 2004, south Indian actress Soundarya died when her plane crashed near Bangalore while she was campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Soundarya, 32, was killed along with her brother.
