PM Modi condoles Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's death

"Shri Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was a popular leader with rich political and administrative experience. He did notable work to popularise football in India," Modi wrote on his twitter page.

"Saddened by his demise. My thoughts are with Deepa Dasmunsi ji and family as well as his supporters," the PM said.

The All India Congress also condoled the leader's death :"Our deepest condolences on the passing of respected Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, our veteran Congress leader and former union minister. He will be greatly remembered for his contributions, especially to Indian Football," @INCIndia, the official Twitter account of the Congress tweeted.

Dasmunsi died in Delhi's Apollo hospital at 12 10 am, the hospital sources said. He was 72.

He had been in a marathon coma  after suffering a massive stroke and paralysis in October 2008.

Media reports quoted the hospital as saying that Dasmunsi had developed chest infection last month and  had been in a critical condition for the past one month.

For years the leader remained speechless and unconscious of his surroundings as the blood supply to a part of his brain was cut off causing irreversible damage.

According to reports, his  body systems were functional but he breathed through a tracheostomy tube attached to his neck and was fed through a PEG tube in his stomach. All basic life functions like breathing, blood pressure, sleepawake cycle were stable but he was not conscious of his surroundings.

Dasmunsi was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha representing the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal when he suffered the stroke.

An astute orator and and a key leader of the Congress in West Bengal as well as at the national level, Dasmunsi rose from the rank of a Youth Congress worker, who became All India Youth Congress President in 1970.

He entered the Indian politics next year after winning the Lok Sabha election next year from south Kolkata at the age of 26.

He was sworn in as Union Minister of State, Commerce in 1985.

He was the cabinet minister in Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting during the first term of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He also became President of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee in 2008.

Dasmunsi also served as the President of the All India Football  Federation for nearly two deacdes.

He became the first Indian to be a match commissioner in a World Cup match in 2006. He was in charge of Spain vs Tunisia and Croatia vs Australia matches, both played in Stuttgart, Germany.

He represented Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency from 1999 till he fell ill. Later his wife Deepa Dasmunsi represented the constituency.

His family  took him to Germany for treatment and was consulting a UK-based hospital, but with no result.