Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Sadhna Gupta dies after prolonged illness

Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Sadhna Gupta passed away at a private hospital in Gurugram on Saturday after a prolonged illness.

She was suffering from a lung infection and other ailments for the past three months. She was undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital, where she breathed her last this morning, SP sources here said.

Gupta was the second wife of Mulayam Singh Yadav. His first wife and the mother of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Malti Devi, died in 2003.

In a tweet in Hindi, the SP paid a "heartfelt tribute" to Gupta.

Mulayam Singh Yadav was in Delhi at the time of his wife's death, the party sources said, adding that the body is being brought to Lucknow.

Akhilesh Yadav is overseeing the arrangements and the details of the last rites will be finalised soon, they said.

Senior party leaders and workers started arriving at the SP patron's house soon after the news of Gupta's death broke.

In a tweet, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya extended his condolences to Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family.