UP minister Kameshwar Upadhyaya dead

Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Sports Minister Kameshwar Upadhyaya passed away late Monday night, his family said Tuesday. He was 76.

The minister breathed his last at Sir Ganga Ram hospital in New Delhi where he had been admitted Sep 23 after respiratory complications.

Upadhyaya was having a lot of breathing problems for the past two days and he was not able to recover, his personal secretary, Omendra Kumar Chaturvedi, told IANS.

Considered very close to Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Upadhyay was known to be a simpleton who lived in a one room accommodation in Lucknow and was one of the very few socialist leaders left in the ruling party.

His mortal remains reached the state capital Tuesday morning. After a brief stop at the SP headquarters the body would be taken to his ancestral village Bhatparrani, from where he was a legislator.

He will be cremated Tuesday evening.