Veteran Bengal minister Subhas Chakraborty dies

West Bengal Sport, Transport and Youth Affairs Minister Subhas Chakraborty passed away in a private hospital in Kolkata at 11.35 am on Monday following multiple organ failure.

The veteran leader from the Communist Party of India-Marxist was admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata on July 26 with chest infection and pneumonia. Chakraborty had also been battling cancer for a few years. He was 67 years old.

His condition deteriorated on Monday morning and Chakraborty stopped responding to treatment, said a medical bulletin at 10 am on Monday.

Many CPI-M leaders and members of his party's state secretariat, including West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, visited him at the hospital on Sunday.

Chakraborty, a protege of former chief minister Jyoti Basu, was known for his maverick and outspoken ways in Bengal's political circles.

He recently drew the ire of CPI-M Politburo when he openly protested the latter's decision to expel former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party last year.

He was showcaused for his stand and was reprimanded in public by his party high command.

In an interview to rediff.com, however, the nonchalant Chakraborty had said soon after, "I am a braveheart and am never scared. I have always swum against the tide and have never stooped.'

The 'braveheart' Chakraborty failed to conquer death this time.

On getting the news of West Bengal Sport and Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty's death, Communist Party of India patriarch Jyoti Basu told the media, "I should have gone instead of Subhas. It pains me to see someone so dynamic dying un untimely death."