Akhilesh Das Gupta a Congress leader and Former Union Minister passes away.

56-year-old Congress leader and Former Union Minister Akhilesh Das Gupta passes away. He suffered a massive heart attack and was rushed to the Lari hospital where he took his last breath, Sources said. Akhilesh Das Gupta was a Rajya Sabha member and was Minister for Steels in the Congress government. He was the son of late Babu Banarasi Das who was a freedom fighter and also served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh between 1979 to 1980. He has been Minister of State for Steel in UPA-I, served as a mayor of Lucknow and held many posts in the Congress for nearly two decades. He also had stakes in real estate, media and several educational institutions aside from an active interest in politics and sports.

Akhilesh Das Gupta was born on 31st March in 1961 and had done his schooling at Colvin Taluqdars College, Lucknow, Diploma in Public Administration, LL.B., MBA & Ph.D. He has been a National Level Badminton Player and had represented the state of Uttar Pradesh from 1977 to 1983. Akhilesh Das Gupta was former badminton player and also the chairman of Badminton Association of India. He had a stake in include engineering, management, medical and even a university named after his father in Lucknow and other cities. In fact, he also had stakes in a Hindi and an Urdu newspapers published from Lucknow.

In 2012, Akhilesh Das Gupta had became President of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) after the arrest of former chief VK Verma over corruption charges in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He was unanimously re-elected for a four-year term in 2014. Last year, he was also elected as the vice-president of the Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC) for a four-year term. Under his tenure, India bagged the rights to host marquee BWF events like the 2014 Thomas/Uber Cup and the Super Series, while Syed Modi international was upgraded to a Grand Prix gold status. He was also instrumental in launching and organising the cash-rich Indian Badminton League in August 2013, which was later rechristened to Premier Badminton League in 2015.

Many leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, express grieves over Akhilesh Das Gupta’s death. PM Modi tweeted “Saddened by the demise of former MP & Union Minister, Shri Akhilesh Das. His active contribution to public life will be remembered. RIP.”