A Congress leader died of suspected cardiac arrest immediately after hoisting the Tricolour on Independence Day in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.

Anwar Hussain Ansari, in his early 50s and a former president of Chirkunda town committee of the party, had hoisted the national flag along with two others at Shaheed Chowk on Sunday before he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and slumped to the ground.

“We all had also gone for flag hoisting at the local police station earlier and then walked to the nearby Shaheed Chowk,” said JMM town committee president Manik Lal Gorai who witnessed Ansari collapsing after the flag-hoisting at Shaheed Chowk.

A video clip being circulated on social media shows Ansari wave at someone when “Sare jahan se achcha” was being played and hold the flagpole after that, following which he suddenly slumps to the ground on his left where a woman party colleague was standing.

“It all happened too quickly and he suddenly slumped to the ground before we could realise anything,” Gorai said, adding that Ansari was immediately rushed to a nearby medical facility.

“I also reached there without losing any time but learnt he had already died of a heart attack,” he further said, adding that it was “really difficult to believe that someone who stood beside us a few minutes ago was no more”.

“It’s really very sad that such a tragedy struck our party and we lost a dedicated colleague when people were celebrating the 75th Independence Day of the country,” state Congress president Rameshwar Oraon and finance minister, said in Ranchi.

“Ansariji was associated with the party for about three decades,” said state Congress spokesperson Alok Kumar Dubey, adding that it was a rare incident.