Shukla is 'critical but stable', say doctors

Congress leader V.C. Shukla, critically injured in the Maoists attack on party leaders in Chhattisgarh the day before, is "critical but stable", doctors attending on him here said Sunday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi visited the wounded leader in hospital.

"He is critical but stable," Medanta Medicity medical superintendent A.K. Dubey told IANS.

Shukla, 84, a former union minister, received multiple bullet injuries and lost a lot of blood in the attack on the Congress leaders' convoy in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region Saturday.

"Shukla was flown in an air ambulance around 8.15 today (Sunday) morning to Delhi. A multi-disciplinary team of doctors is treating him," Dubey said.

The prime minister, Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit visited Shukla in hospital.

Advani told reporters outside hospital that though Shukla was not in a condition to talk, his vital parameters indicated that he was stable.

"I felt relieved after seeing him... doctors have said that all that needs to be done is being done," he said.

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

The Maoists attacked the Congress party convoy around 5.15 p.m. Saturday, police said.

The convoy, returning from the party's Parivartan Yatra (transformation rally), was targeted near Darbha forest in Jagdalpur, about 340 km south of state capital Raipur.

Chhattisgarh is headed for assembly elections later this year.