Mumbai/New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Gurudas Kamat died of a heart attack in Delhi on Wednesday morning. He was 63.
Kamat, who had gone to Delhi for work, was admitted to Primus Hospital in Chanakyapuri after he complained of uneasiness. He died in hospital, according to news agency ANI.
A five-time MP, Kamat was a strong organizational man and headed the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) for a long time. He was also the All India Congress Committee general secretary.
The Congress leader, however, was unhappy with the party leadership for the last few years. In June 2016, Kamat resigned from all party posts on “personal grounds” after Sanjay Nirupam was made the MRCC chief. However, he stayed with the party and later became active as well. Kamat had also ruffled the feathers of the party leadership in 2012 when he refused the portfolio of minister of state for drinking water and sanitation.
A soft-spoken politician who had great command over English and Marathi, Kamat maintained excellent personal relationship across parties. A fierce critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena, Kamat, however, never crossed the line between political and ideological differences and personal decency. His long-time electoral rival and BJP MP, Kirit Somaiya, described Kamat as a “gentleman politician who was always concerned about Mumbai’s development regardless of whether he was MP or not”.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also condoled Kamat’s death, describing him as an excellent organizational man who was committed to the welfare of the people. “Kamat had a close relationship with Mumbai residents at all levels. He was passionate about Mumbai’s development and would take initiatives to solve Mumbai’s problems. He was a studious politician who remained loyal to his party organisation and skilfully held several responsibilities. His demise is a big loss for his party and Mumbai,” said Fadnavis.
Born in Ankola village of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka on 5 October 1954, Kamat was handpicked by the then Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi in 1984 as a Congress candidate from Mumbai North East constituency, though the party organization wanted someone senior to take on BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan. Kamat, only 30 then, went on to defeat Mahajan by more than 96,000 votes. He represented the constituency five times in the Lok Sabha, though he lost the 2014 election to Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar.
One of the most veteran leaders of the party, his association with the Congress spanned more than four decades. He had joined the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). Rising from the ranks, he went on to become the national president of Indian Youth Congress (IYC), the president of MRCC and eventually a Union minister of state in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He had served in the party’s top decision making body, the Congress Working Committee, and held charge of states such as Gujarat and Rajasthan.