Daily Times

Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee passed away on Monday. His son Abhijeet Mukherjee has confirmed the death of the former president in a tweet.

Pranab Mukherjee had been ill for a long time.

Mukherjee died of multiple organ failure on Monday after being admitted to hospital weeks ago, having also contracted coronavirus.

A senior leader of India’s Congress party who served in multiple cabinets during five decades, Mukherjee had emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain on August 10 at New Delhi’s Army Hospital Research and Referral after suffering a fall.

The hospital said he tested positive for COVID-19 after the surgery and his condition was critical. He remained in a coma after the surgery.

The hospital said his health began declining on Monday after a lung infection resulted in septic shock.

Mukherjee served as president from 2012 to 2017, at the end of a long period when the Congress party held power.

The office is largely ceremonial in India, with executive powers resting with the prime minister.

Before that, he had been minister of finance, defence and foreign affairs for three separate prime ministers and helped manage their fractious governing coalitions.

Mukherjee was a college teacher in West Bengal state before first running for public office in 1969.

He became a protege of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was loyal to her during the Internal Emergency she had proclaimed from 1975 to 1977, when elections were suspended and civil liberties were curbed. Many of her opponents were imprisoned.