Former prime minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal lost his only son Prakash Dahal on Sunday morning to cardiac arrest.

A politburo member of the party and Dahal’s personal secretary, Prakash was 36. He is survived by two sons from two of his wives.

With Prakash’s untimely death, Chairman Dahal now has two daughters—Renu and Ganga—as his eldest daughter Gyanu died in March 2014 due to breast cancer.

During the decade-long insurgency that ended in 2006, many Maoist leaders had kept their children away from the conflict zone but Dahal took Prakash and his daughters along with him, placing them in danger.

Dahal was away in Jhapa when his wife Sita found Prakash unconscious in bed at their residence in Lazimpat early Sunday morning. Prakash was admitted to the Thapathali-based Norvic Hospital at 5:50am.

Party Spokesperson Pampha Bhusal hailed Prakash’s contribution to the party especially as the private secretary to the former PM.

He had returned from his father’s campaign four days ago via Chitwan after feeling “uncomfortable” but had not informed anyone about his health condition.

According to leader Santu Darai, who has been with the Dahal’s secretariat, his mother Sita had served him rice gruel at 7pm on Saturday. Prakash was declared dead at 6am, minutes after his nieces and Darai rushed him to hospital.

Cardiologist Dr JP Jaiswal said Dahal might have died three hours before he was brought to the hospital where the doctors found no traces of life. Sources claimed that Prakash had been to a party on Friday and had not been paying attention to his diet as his father and spouse Bina Magar were busy with their election campaigns.

Shocked by the news of Prakash’s sudden death, his second wife Srijana lost consciousness while his mother was also taken ill. He had divorced his first wife, the daughter of Dahal’s comrade Posta Bahadur Bogati.

Bina, his third wife, who is contesting the federal polls from Kanchanpur-1, had reached the hospital with their son.

His body was taken to the party headquarters at Perisdanda where politicians across the party line including Nepali Congress leader and Deputy PM Gopalman Shrestha, CPN Revolutionary Maoist Chairman Mohan Baidya and Naya Shakti Nepal coordinator Baburam Bhattarai reached to pay their tributes. Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, a former revolutionary, also reached the party’s central office to console Dahal. UML leaders Madhav Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal and General Secretary Ishwor Pokhrel reached Norvic Hospital to pay their respects to the departed soul.

Most of the Maoist candidates contesting from different constituencies had reached the party office direct from their campaign venues after receiving the news.

Chairman Dahal, who is a candidate from Chitwan-3, had flown to Kathmandu on a helicopter from Jhapa. He first reached Lazimpat where he met the chiefs of security agencies before going to the hospital to receive his son’s body. Dahal lit the funeral pyre of his son at Pashupati Aryaghat as per the Hindu tradition as a large crowd of party leaders, cadres and supporters watched.

Prez, PM and India condole Dahal

President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba have expressed their condolences to CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on the untimely demise of his son Prakash Dahal.

Similarly, Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, in a twitter message, has expressed her condolences to former prime minister Dahal on the sad demise of

his son.