Shukla dies 17 days after Maoist attack

Shukla dies 17 days after Maoist attack TIMES NEWS NETWORK  New Delhi: Former Union minister and veteran Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla died on Tuesday in a Gurgaon hospital after losing a 17-day battle against debilitating bullet wounds inflicted during a Maoist ambush on a Congress convoy deep in the jungles of Bastar. The 84-year-old leader, who succumbed to multiple organ failure at 2.38pm, is the seniormost politician to be assassinated by the Maoists till date. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.     His body was brought to AIIMS for postmortem before being flown to Raipur for the last rites. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi drove to AIIMS to pay their respects to Shukla. The BJP-led Chhattisgarh government has declared a three-day mourning.      Shukla, as a close aide and a Cabinet colleague of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was part of the Congress brass which enforced the Emergency from 1975 to 1977.