Former UP minister Kawkab Hameed Khan dies at 66

Former UP minister and senior Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Kawkab Hameed Khan died Wednesday evening after prolonged illness, a senior party leader said.

Khan was 66.

RLD western UP in-charge Rajkumar Sangwan said Khan had been keeping ill for five years and was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Delhi.

"Yesterday, he was discharged from the hospital and brought home," Sangwan said.

Kawkab Hameed Khan was a five-time MLA and three-time minister.

Following news of his death, leaders from different political parties and his supporters started reaching Khan's home.

Kawkab Hameed Khan became an MLA for the first time in 1985 when he won the Baghpat seat on a Congress ticket. He contested his last election in 2012 on an RLD ticket from Baghpat but lost to BSP's Hemlata Chaudhary.