File photo of veteran Congress leader Makhan Lal Fotedar who passed away in Gurugram on Thursday. PTI Photo
Veteran Congress leader Makhanlal Fotedar died at a private hospital on Thursday. He was 85.
Fotedar had been suffering from a respiratory infection besides being treated for diabetes and hypertension. “He breathed his last at 1:30 pm at Medanta Hospital in neighbouring Gurugram,” a Congress leader said.
Fotedar was a trusted lieutenant of late prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He was known as “Chanakya” of the Congress.
Of late, Fotedar had been critical of Rahul Gandhi’s leadership qualities and had claimed that Indira saw his younger sibling Priyanka as her political successor.
Born into a middle-class Kashmiri Pandit family, Fotedar took the political plunge by campaigning for Jawaharlal Nehru from the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh and has been a family loyalist ever since.