Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi passes away at 72: Here are 7 things you need to know about Congress veteran

Congress leader and former union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, 72, passed away in New Delhi on Monday. He was in coma since 2008.

Dasmunshi breathed his last at 12:10 pm in Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

The former union minister's wife, Deepa Dasmunsi, said that her husband's condition has been deteriorating for a month now. 

"Yes, he was declared dead by the doctors around noon," Deepa was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

Here are seven things you need to know about this Congress veteran

1) Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was president of Indian Youth Congress in West Bengal from 1970 to 1971 before he entered Indian Parliament in 1971.

2) He was sworn in as the Union Minister of State for Commerce in 1985 and continued to remain a member of the Parliament till 2009.

3) Priya Ranjan was the cabinet minister in Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting during the first term of Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.

4) However, during his stint in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Priya Ranjan became involved in several controversial decisions like banning of several western television networks. In fact, it was this Congress veteran, who had said that the programs being broadcast on AXN and Fashion TV were 'obscene' and as a result, the aforementioned TV channels owned by Sony were banned for three months.

5) The Congress veteran has represented the Raiganj constituency in West Bengal twice in the Lok Sabha. However, when he suffered a major heart stroke in 2008, his wife Deepa Dasmunshi, represented the constituency in 2009.  She was a member on the Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.

6) Priya Ranjan was also the president of the All India Football Federation for almost 10 years (1998-2012). and was the first Indian to serve as a match commissioner in a FIFA World Cup game.

7) After suffering a complete left ventricular failure of the heart in October 2008, the left side of Priya Ranjan's body was paralysed. Despite getting  sophisticated medical care and treatment, he did not recover.

"We tried almost everything possible, I even took him to Germany for stem cell therapy but unfortunately that didn't really work. The therapy was mainly aimed at improving his brain function but it wasn't effective," Deepa said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bnaerjee has conveyed her condolence over the death of the Congress leader.