CENTRAL MINISTER GOPINATH MUNDE DEAD

Union Rural Development Minister and a popular backward class leader from Maharashtra Gopinath Munde today died of multiple internal injuries suffered in a road accident in Central Delhi early this morning. 64-year-old Munde, who made his entry into the Union Cabinet for the first time last week, was on his way to the airport when his car was hit by another vehicle at Prithviraj Road-Tughlak Road intersection in the heart of the capital. A brother-in-law of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Munde is survived by his wife and three daughters, one of whom is an MLA from Parli in Maharashtra's Beed district. "The minister has died of multiple internal injuries. No external wound was found on his body. When he was brought to Trauma Centre, his pulse and hearth beat were not working," AIIMS spokesperson Dr Amit Gupta said after a team of doctors conducted a postmortem on his body. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said Munde suffered cervical fractures and oxygen to the brain and lungs may have been cut off following the injuries. His liver had tear at 2-3 places and there was one-and-half litres of blood in his abdomen because of the injury, he said. "The major thing that cost him very heavily was a fracture of the cervical spines C1 and C2. When you have fracture at C1 and C2, the blood supply at the brain gets cut off because the vertebral artery gets damaged immediately," Vardhan, himself a doctor, said. Munde's Secretary S Nair, who was in the car, said the Union Minister received a huge shock after the accident and apparently suffered a massive heart attack. A senior police official said the Indica car which jumped the traffic signal at Aurobindo Chowk collided with the Maruti Suzuki SX 4 in which Munde was travelling towards Safdarjung road from Prithviraj road. His body has been taken to Mumbai and will be given state funeral to be held in his home town Parli in Beed district of Maharastra. 
Earlier in the morning, Dr Gupta said Munde was brought to the Trauma Centre of AIIMS at 6:30 AM by his personal assistant and driver. Munde was sitting in the backseat of his car which was hit by another car at around 6:20 AM from the side he was sitting, he said. On his arrival at the Trauma Centre, there was no spontaneous breathing, no blood pressure, no pulse, no cardiac activity. So immediately Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) was started and continued for the next 15 minutes. Despite resuscitative measures, Munde could not be revived and was declared dead at 7:20 AM, he said. Munde was hypertensive and a sugar patient. He has no major external injuries on his body. "We cannot say anything but clinically we might say that he had a sudden cardiac death".  After the accident, Munde sought water and asked his driver to take him to the hospital, police said. 

MUN DE WITH FORMER PM VAJPAYEE

Munde was considered the architect of social engineering in BJP since the mid-1990s and was responsible for adding parties like RPI and Rashtriya Samaj Party and Swabhimani Paksh into the Sena-BJP alliance that virtually swept the polls winning 42 of the 48 seats. He had only last night attended a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers called by the Prime Minister and was proceeding to Mumbai for work when the accident occurred.
Munde hailed from a poor family in the backward Marathwada region and was brought into politics by the late BJP leader Vasantrao Bhagwat, who also groomed several other leaders including Pramod Mahajan. Munde was recently caught in a row over his educational qualifications with Congress alleging that he "graduated" in 1976 from a college established in 1978. Expressing grief over the untimely demise of 64-year-old Munde, the President said, "In his death, we have lost a veteran leader who always worked for the common man". Modi said he was saddened by the demise of Munde. "Extremely saddened & shocked by the demise of my friend & colleague Gopinath Mundeji. He was a true mass leader. Hailing from backward sections of society, he rose to great heights & tirelessly served people," Modi tweeted. As a mark of respect to Munde, the national flag is being flown at half mast in Delhi, state capitals and Union Territories today.