NEW DELHI, 19 December 2005 — Veteran Congress party leader and Power Minister P.M. Sayeed died of a heart attack in Seoul yesterday, official sources said.
Sayeed had been suffering from enlargement of the liver. They said his liver had developed symptoms of malignancy. This was his third visit to Seoul in the last two months for treatment, which had to follow a particular course.
Sayeed breathed his last at Hyundai hospital in Seoul.
Speaker of the Parliament Somnath Chatterjee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi yesterday expressed deep sorrow and shock over the death of Sayeed.
Recalling his long association with Sayeed, the speaker said his death was a personal loss to him and to the country and his services to the nation were invaluable.
BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar said the country had lost a good leader with Sayeed’s demise.
Describing Sayeed as a soft-natured person, Javdekar said the Congress leader was popular and liked by one and all with his endearing personality.
He had been elected to Lok Sabha (lower house) from Lakshadweep a record number of nine times beginning in 1971. He had been its member in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999 before his winning streak was halted by young MP Muthu Koya in the May 2004 general elections.
He became the deputy speaker of the lower house in 1999 and remained in that position till the dissolution of the Parliament in 2004 when he was appointed the power minister on Congress party’s return to power.
Sayeed was the youngest member of the Parliament when he was elected to it for the first time.
