Former Indian prime minister Chandra Shekhar, who was suffering from cancer, passed away in New Delhi on July 8. He was 80.
Shekhar breathed his last at 8.45am local time at the Apollo Hospital in the Indian capital where he was being treated for bone cancer for the past three months, doctors said.
Shekhar was in a critical state for the past week.
”He was suffering from multiple myeloma [cancer of the bone marrow],” Rakesh Chopra, senior consultant of Apollo Hospital, told the PTI news agency.
He held the office of prime minister for about seven months from November 10 1990 to June 21 1991. The ailing leader was a lawmaker who represented the constituency of northern Ballia city in the Indian Parliament.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh praised Shekhar as a truly secular nationalist who was committed to people’s welfare and national development.
Shekhar is survived by two sons. — Sapa-dpa