CPM veteran Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe dead

NEW DELHI: Veteran trade union leader and CPI(M) Politburo member Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in New Delhi on Saturday.

Pandhe, 87, was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on Friday evening after he complained of chest pain. He is survived by wife Pramila, herself a veteran leader of the CPI(M), and a son.

The party Politburo described him as the senior-most leader of the trade union movement in the country whose seven decades of public life began as a student activist.