Freedom fighter and veteran Congress leader Ram Krishna Dwivedi died after prolonged illness in Lucknow on Friday.
The 88-year-old leader served as minister of state for home in the Congress government in UP and is survived by two sons.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi paid his condolences through a tweet citing Dwivedi as a great leader and remembered him for his contribution to the party.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wrote to Dwivedi’s son to pay her condolences.
Dwivedi’s family said that the leader breathed his last at around 4 am on Friday.
He was suffering from multiple ailments for the past couple of months and was admitted to a private hospital.
Recently, Dwivedi was expelled from the Congress along with 10 senior leaders for anti- party activities by newly-appointed UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu. But after pressure from the top, his expulsion was withdrawn by Lallu which he said was done on `humanitarian’ grounds.
Dwivedi shot to limelight by defeating then Chief Minister TN Singh in Maniram assembly constituency during the 1971 bypoll. He was later made deputy home minister of the state.
Known for his proximity to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Dwivedi was also a member of Congress Working Committee. For the last 15 years, he served as chairman of UP Congress Disciplinary Committee before being expelled by Lallu.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders Santosh Singh, Satyadeo Tripathi, Ajay Kumar Lallu, Aradhana Mishra `Mona’, Deepak Singh, Amaranth Agarwal and others expressed their grief over Dwivedi’s death.