By IANS,
Mumbai : Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh ideologue Bal Apte passed away here Tuesday following a lung ailment, according to a party official.
He was 73 and is survived by his wife and a daughter.
The funeral will take place Wednesday morning near his house in Matunga in central Mumbai.
Apte was admitted to Hinduja Hospital at Mahim, July 6 following respiratory problems and a chronic lung ailment.
A prominent lawyer and former additional advocate-general of Maharashtra, Apte was elected twice to the Rajya Sabha, in 2000 and 2006, from Maharashtra.
He also served as BJP vice-president between 2002-2010 and in various other important capacities in the party and in parliament. He had been jailed for two years during the Emergency.
Apte’s funeral procession, in which top BJP leaders from Maharashtra and elsewhere are expected to attend, will start from Matunga for the last rites at the Dadar crematorium.