Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and former Assam Minister Promod Gogoi died today following brief illness.
Gogoi, the party's central secretariat and national executive member since 1975, was 82 and a bachelor, CPI's State Council Secretary Bhogeswar Dutta said.u00a0
Gogoi was admitted to the hospital on April 2 following nasal bleeding, suffered brain haemorrhage on the night of April 4 and was put on ventilation as his condition turned 'very critical'.u00a0
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He represented Sibsagar constituency five times in the Assam assembly since 1967 and was the Flood Control Minister of cabinet rank in the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)-led coalition government from 1996-2000.u00a0
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Gogoi was currently the President of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Vice President of World Federation of Trade Union (WFTU).u00a0
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He joined the CPI during the pre-independence when he was a student and as the party was declared illegal, he was sent to Jorhat Jail for three years.u00a0
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He was in the forefront of the left movement of the region for the last sixty years. Gogoi championed the cause of the working people and played an important role in organizing trade unions of different segments of workers including oil employees.
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He also played an active role in the refinery movement, language movement and anti-dam movement which has rocked the state during the past decades.u00a0
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He recently attended the 21st Party Congress at Patna and was reelected to the National Executive.u00a0
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Gogoi's body would be taken to the state legislative assembly and the party office here before being taken to Sibsagar where his last rites would be performed tomorrow.
