Shukla still critical: Doctors

Congress leader V.C. Shukla, who was critically injured in the Maoist attack on party leaders in Chhattisgarh last week, continues to remain critical, doctors attending on him here said Wednesday.

"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 Shukla at 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.

Shukla, 84, 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. About 30 people, including two senior leaders, were killed in the attack.

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.

"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 L.K. Advani visited him in the hospital Sunday.

Shukla belongs to an old Congress family. 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 the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.