Former BJP president Jana Krishnamurti is dead

New Delhi: Former BJP president Jana Krishnamurti dies in a Chennai Hospital on Tuesday after a renal failure.

Seventy nine-year-old Krishnamurthy was in coma for the last one month. BJP sources were quoted by news agency UNI as saying that Krishnamurthy never regained consciousness, and died at about 1015 hrs.

The body of Krishnamurthy, one of the founding members of the BJP, is being brought to his residence in Kilpauk to enable people to pay their last respects.

Senior State BJP leaders, including party president L Ganesan, paid homage to the departed leader.

Former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, who visited the ailing leader at the hospital last week during his two-day visit to the state, is likely to arrive later on Tuesday evening to pay his last respects.

Krishnamurthy, who was appointed BJP President in 2001, became the first Tamilian to head a national party in India, after Congress leader K Kamaraj.

A lawyer by profession, Krishnamurti is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.