At the age of 97, Captain Lakshmi Sahgal has left the world for a better place in a hospital in Kanpur. She is no more.

Since Wednesday, Sahgal was in a coma following the brief heart strike she had. She was a close aide of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

She was born in Madras (now Chennai) and had graduated as a doctor in the Madras Medical College in 1938. After two years she left for Singapore and served the migrant immigrants residing there. In 1943, she met Subhash Chandra Bose who then spoke to her regarding the formation of an All-Women Regiment in the Indian National Army to fight for the independece of the country. She was made the commander of this wing.

She had become a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPIM in 1971 representing the party in the Upper House, Rajya Sabha.

In 2002, four leftist parties - the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the All India Forward Bloc – had provided their unstinting support for her presidential candidature against APJ Abdul Kalam but was defeated.

(AW- ANil)