Congress veteran Vidya Charan Shukla, who suffered bullet injuries in the deadly Naxal ambush that eliminated the party’s Chhattisgarh unit leadership over a fortnight ago, died on Tuesday following multi-organ failure.
Confirming the death of Shukla, 84, Yatin Mehta, chairman of the Institute of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology at Medanta Medicity, said the Congress leader died at 2.38 pm after he developed multi-organ failure. Severe bullet injuries and old age were major risk factors in his case, he added.
According to a hospital statement, Shukla was operated upon for intestinal and liver injuries and remained critical in the ICU with vital organs support. He had gunshot injuries to the chest, abdomen and thigh and had been in critical condition when he had arrived at the hospital, the hospital added.
Meanwhile, PTI quoted family sources as saying that the mortal remains of Shukla would be consigned to flames at his farmhouse on the outskirts of Raipur on Wednesday.
BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh has declared three days’ state mourning as a mark of respect for Shukla whose death was condoled by President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other leaders.
Shukla was airlifted from Raipur and admitted to the hospital in critical condition on May 26, a day after the attack in south Bastar area of the Maoist-affected state.
Shukla, the son of illustrious lawyer, freedom fighter and veteran Congressman Ravishankar Shukla, was the first chief minister of re-organised Madhya Pradesh. Elected to the Lok Sabha nine times, the first time in 1957, he was minister of state for I&B under Indira Gandhi and had a controversial tenure in the ministry during the Emergency.
He had sided with V.P. Singh in the late 1980s and joined the Jan Morcha in the run-up to the 1989. general election. He became a minister in the V.P. Singh government and later switched to Chandra Shekhar to remain a minister in the short-lived JD(S) government. Then he returned to the Congress.
and became minister of parliamentary affairs and water resources under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.