Former Union minister Bijoy Krishna Handique passed away at the age of 81 years after a brief illness. Born in 1934 Handique was six times Lok Sabha member. He had earlier served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1980 to 1986. Handique had served as minister of state for defence and parliamentary affairs (2004-2007), chemicals and fertilizers (2006-2009) and later as minister of state first for mines and later for development of Northeastern region from 2009 to 2011 in the UPA governments under Manmohan Singh.