IANS

Kolkata, Aug 3: West Bengal Sports and Transport Minister and senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Subhas Chakraborty died in hospital here Monday, party officials said. He was 68.

The death was announced by Biman Bose, chairman of West Bengal's ruling Left Front, in which the CPI-m is the major partner.

He is survived by his wife and a son.

Chakraborty, who had been on ventilator support at a private hospital here, slipped into a coma earlier Monday, a hospital spokesman said.

He had been admitted to the AMRI Hospital in the satellite township of Salt Lake last Tuesday with lung and kidney disorders besides severe heart problems. He was not responding to treatment, medical superintendent Debashish Sharma had told IANS here.

Party sources said Chakraborty was also in advanced stage of cancer, but the hospital did not confirm it.

The minister was given blood transfusion Sunday night for increasing his platelet count and also underwent dialysis.

"But these interventions did not yield the desired results," Sharma said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, other senior CPI-M leaders and sportspersons visited the hospital Monday morning. A large number of admirers of the popular leader have also assembled at the hospital.