Rai suffered a massive heart attack on Thursday night following which he was admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where he died at 2.45 am. He is survived by his widow, a son and four daughters.

A frontrunner from Ghosi, Uttar Pradesh, Rai was an AICC general secretary in the Indira Gandhi regime and a minister in the Narasimha Rao government.

Rai was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in 1974 and had two other terms in the same House. He was also elected to the Lok Sabha four times from Ghosi. In the last Lok Sabha, Rai was elected on a Samata Party ticket but he resigned from the party and rejoined the Congress.

Known for his blunt and colourful language, Rai had good support in Ghosi which returned him to the Lok Sabha in 1996 even after he was arrested under TADA for sheltering criminals in a government guest house.

Born on January 4, 1941, in Semari Jamalpur village ofMau district UP, Rai began his career in 1963 as general secretary of the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, UP. Rai, who did his M.A (English and Sociology) and LLB from Gorakhpur University, was a member of the CPP executive committee between 1974-76 and its general secretary in 1978.

Rai's stint as a union minister began in 1982 when he was made a minister of state in the Indira Gandhi government and continued till 1984. From June 1988 to December 1989, he was minister of state for Power and after being elected to the 10th Lok Sabha, he was again made minister of state for Power and non-conventional energy sources with independent charge.

In 1993-1994 he was minister of state for food and became controversial due to the sugar scam involving his ministry. He was jailed in connection with the scam but was later acquitted.

With Rai's death, the Congress has lost one of its potential candidates for the coming Lok Sabha polls.