Veteran Communist Party of India leader Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan passed away on Saturday. He was 92 and was being treated at GB Pant Hospital.

He was undergoing treatment after tests detected a blood clot in his brain. Earlier on Saturday, the CPI described his condition as “critical”.

“Condition of Comrade Bardhan has worsened today. He was put off ventilator yesterday and was able to breathe normally. But today, his blood pressure (level) fell and his condition has turned very critical now,” CPI national secretary D Raja said.

Bardhan has been a leading figure of the trade union movement and Left politics in Maharashtra. He had won as an independent candidate in Maharashtra assembly polls in 1957. He later rose to become the general secretary and then president of All India Trade Union Congress, the oldest trade union in India.

Bardhan had moved to Delhi politics in the 1990s and became the deputy general secretary of CPI. He succeeded Indrajit Gupta as the general secretary of the party in 1996.