India's former foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, has died at 67 from a heart attack.
Swaraj, leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, died at a hospital in New Delhi.
She had been rushed to the emergency ward of All India Institute of Medical Science hospital on Tuesday after a heart attack, the Press Trust of India reported.
In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Swaraj's death was a "personal loss" and that she had worked tirelessly at India's external affairs ministry.
Swaraj was the external affairs minister in Modi's cabinet from 2014 to 2019.
She had an active presence on social media and often replied to requests for help from Indians abroad.
The former minister decided not to run for this year's general election, citing health issues after undergoing a kidney transplant during her tenure as minister.
Her last tweets thanked Modi for bringing a measure to Parliament to revoke constitutional protections for the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
She wrote: "Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime."
The bill lawmakers passed on Tuesday strips Jammu and Kashmir - India's only Muslim-majority state - of its statehood.
Former minister Swaraj called it a "bold and historic decision", but the law also does away with the region's right to its own constitution and to Kashmiris' hereditary rights to land, jobs and scholarships.
The move has sparked renewed tensions between India and Pakistan with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan saying he will "fight to the last drop of blood over Kashmir".
Swaraj received a law degree and began her political career in the 1970s closely associated with socialist leaders.
She actively opposed an emergency rule imposed in 1975 by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Congress party.
Later she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and rose to become one of its top leaders.
Last serving as India's foreign minister, she was only the second woman in the role after Indira Gandhi.
The leading politician was a member of the Haryana state legislature from 1977 to 1982 and again from 1987 to 1990. She then entered national politics and served as information and broadcasting minister, parliamentary affairs minister and health minister. She also served as the chief minister of Delhi in the late 1990s.
Sushma is survived by her husband, Swaraj Kaushal, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India and a former governor of Mizoram state, and a daughter, Bansuri, who is also an advocate.
