Chhattisgarh Naxal attack: Injured Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla remains critical, say doctors

Gurgaon: Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla, who was critically injured in the Maoist attack on party leaders in Chhattisgarh last Saturday, continues to remain critical, doctors attending on him said today.

"He is still critical but conscious. He has been put on ventilator and administered strong antibiotics to contain the infection. We are closely monitoring him," a doctor treating Mr Shukla at the Medanta Medicity told IANS.

Doctors had performed exploratory laparotomy surgery (a diagnostic tool that allows physicians to examine the abdominal organs) Sunday when he was admitted to the hospital.

84-year-old Shukla, a former union minister, received three bullet injuries and lost a lot of blood in the attack on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region Saturday.  24 people, including two senior leaders, were killed in the attack.

Mr Shukla was flown in an air ambulance to Delhi, and taken to Medanta Medicity in Gurgaon, where a multi-disciplinary team of doctors is treating him.

Advertisement

"Besides multiple other injuries, he has suffered three gunshots - two in the chest and one in abdomen," the doctor added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani had visited him in the hospital on Sunday.

Advertisement

Mr Shukla belongs to an old Congress family. His father Ravishankar Shukla was the first chief minister of reorganised Madhya Pradesh. Mr Shukla was inducted into the union cabinet in 1966 by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.