President Pranab Mukherjee's wife Suvra Mukherjee, who has been ailing for some time, passed away today.
Suvra, an accomplished Rabindra Sangeet singer, was 74.
The First Lady, who remained hospitalised for 11 days, breathed her last at 10.51 AM at the Army Research and Referral Hospital here.
"It is informed with deep sorrow that First Lady Smt. Suvra Mukherjee passed away this morning (August 18, 2015). She left for her heavenly abode at 1051 AM," Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesman Venu Rajamony said in a statement.
Suvra was admitted to the Army Hospital on August 7 after she complained of breathlessness and discomfort. Since then she was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Besides her husband, Suvra is survived by two sons Abhijit, a Congress MP, and Indrajit and one daughter Sharmistha, who unsuccessfully contested the Delhi Assembly elections on a Congress ticket.
Mukherjee had cut short his visit to Odisha on August 7 and returned to the national capital after he was informed about his wife's health condition.
Mukherjee got married to Suvra on July 13,1957. The First Lady hailed from Jessore, now in Bangladesh, and had migrated to Kolkata at the age of 10 years.
"We are not like today's couples. It's not a lovey-dovey relationship and we don't express our emotions overtly," Suvra was quoted as having said on the eve of the crowning moment of her husband's political career when he assumed the office of President on July 25, 2012.
