Ex-Union minister Jaywantiben Mehta dead

Mumbai: Jaywantiben Mehta, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former union minister passed away early on Monday at her residence following a brief illness.

She was 78 and had served as a minister in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

A housewife-turned-politician, Mehta breathed her last around 1.30 a.m. today and the last rites are scheduled this evening at Shivaji Park crematorium, said a party official.

Around six years, she had penned and released her multi-lingual autobiography, 'Marching With Time', detailing her lifea's journey from a middle-class home-maker to a municipal corporator to parliamentarian and then a union minister.

Top leaders from across the political spectrum today expressed grief over the demise of Mehta.