Kolkata, Aug 3 - West Bengal Sports and Transport Minister and senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Subhas Chakraborty, a popular leader known for courting controversies, died in hospital here Monday, party officials said. He was 67.

The end came at 11.35 a.m. at the AMRI Hospital, where he had been admitted last Tuesday with lung and kidney disorders besides severe heart problems. He was put on ventilator support before slipping into coma early Monday following multi-organ failure, a weeping state ruling Left Front chairman and CPI-M state unit secretary Biman Bose announced.

Party sources said Chakraborty was also in advanced stage of cancer. He is survived by his wife and a son.

Prominent personalities cutting across all spheres condoled his death.

Former chief minister Jyoti Basu, whom Chakraborty considered his mentor, expressed shock. Biman Bose said he informed the 96-year-old leader about Chakraborty's demise.

'He is extremely shocked at the news,' Bose told reporters here.

According to Basu's personal assistant Joy Krishna Ghosh, the nonagenarian leader while expressing sorrow, said: 'It is my time to go. But the irony is I am alive, while Subhas is no more. He was a very capable leader.'

Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly described Chakraborty as a 'great personality'.

'I am shocked. I feel sad. I knew for the last few months that Subhasda was ill. He was a great personality,' Ganguly said.

'I knew him since my childhood as a family friend.