The 57-year-old journalist, who was critically ill with complications resulting from non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis, was admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai earlier in February, the newspaper said in a statement.

"He developed multiple organ failure before a liver transplant could be carried out. He breathed his last surrounded by his relatives, friends and comrades," the National Herald said.

In 2016, Mishra steered the re-launch of National Herald, the newspaper founded by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938, as a digital news website.

In 2017, Mishra relaunched the National Herald as Sunday newspaper, and then National Herald's sister publications Navjivan and Qaumi Awaz as news websites.

Paying tribute to Mishra, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said he was a man who spoke truth to power.

"An institution builder. On Neelabh Mishra's tragic passing away this morning, my deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and admirers," he said in a tweet.