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Kumaramangalam still critically ill: AFP

Union Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, 48, remained in a critical condition in hospital on Friday, two days after slipping into a semi-coma.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said in a medical bulletin that the minister, who had fallen into a coma on Wednesday morning, was still on an artificial respirator.

"Kumaramangalam continues to be in a critical condition without any improvement," the statement said. "He is still on life support measures, including dialysis. His vital signs continue to be unstable."

The minister was hospitalised with a dangerously high fever at the weekend, and his condition deteriorated rapidly, resulting in what doctors described as multi-organ failure.

Kumaramangalam, who has had mild fever for two months, is reportedly suffering from leukemia and his blood count has fallen to an alarming level, according to medical sources.

Doctors treating him said the report has not been confirmed.

The son of a veteran Communist leader who was also a federal minister, Kumaramangalam joined Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in 1998 after growing disenchanted with the opposition Congress party.

He served as a federal minister in two earlier governments -- once under Vajpayee and earlier under a Congress administration in 1991.

As power minister, he has been credited with liberalising the sector in line with sweeping market reforms launched in 1991.

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