Kerala Governor M. O. H. Farook passed away at a hospital late on Thursday at the age of 74 following a brief illness.
He died at the Apollo Hospitals where he was undergoing treatment since last month for kidney and other ailments, his son and former Puducherry minister M. O. H. F. Shahjahan said.
Farook, a senior Congress leader and former Puducherry chief minister and MP, is survived by son and two daughters. He was sworn in as the 19th governor of Kerala last September, prior to which he had occupied the gubernatorial post in Jharkhand.
Farook had served as Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Puducherry thrice and was a Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Tourism between 1991 and 1992. He was elected to Lok Sabha for three terms from 1991 from Puducherry and had also served as Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Condoling his death, Congress President Sonia Gandhi described him as an embodiment of secular ideals and recalled his servces to the nation and the party.
Farook, a key political figure in the Union Territory, had the distinction of being the youngest Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly in the late 1960s. He had never faced defeat in any electoral battles in his several decades long political career.
Expressing grief over the death of Farook, Union Minister of State in PMO V. Narayanasamy said from Delhi that he was an able administrator and a good politician who had guided the destiny of Puducherry in different capacities.
"In the death of Farook, Puducherry has lost an astute political leader and his death is an irreparable loss," he said.