Four-time Congress MLA Nand Lal, a former Special Protection Group (SPG) officer who was part of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s security detail, was laid to rest in his native village of Deothi in Rampur on Tuesday.Nand Lal, 72, a former Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh State Finance Commission, passed away on Monday after a prolonged illness.He represented the reserved Rampur constituency, a Congress citadel in Shimla district, for four consecutive terms — in 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022. Rampur, the hometown of six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has long remained a Congress stronghold.After taking voluntary retirement from the ITBP in 2007, Nand Lal entered politics the same year. During his service with the elite SPG, he was part of Sonia Gandhi’s security detail, an association that played a significant role in his subsequent political journey. He had also commanded an ITBP battalion in insurgency-affected Kashmir during his service.Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu arrived in Rampur on Tuesday to attend Nand Lal’s cremation. He offered condolences to the former MLA’s wife and son and placed a wreath on his body. Several ministers, MLAs, senior Congress leaders and a large number of people from Rampur attended the cremation.“The void left behind by the demise of Nand Lal ji is irreparable. He was a very soft-spoken, humble person who would always express his viewpoint very logically,” Sukhu said.Recalling his last meeting with Nand Lal, Sukhu said he had met him at Chamiyana Hospital two days earlier, when doctors had informed him that his blood pressure was very low. “The next morning, he passed away,” the Chief Minister added.Sukhu said Nand Lal had played a key role in the overall development of Rampur and in creating infrastructure facilities in the constituency.“I, along with my entire Cabinet and party, express our condolences to the bereaved family in this hour of grief,” he said.