Patna, April 17: Former Uttar Pradesh governor Vishnu Kant Shastri today died of a heart attack in a train from Howrah just before reaching the capital. He was coming here to attend a public function later in the day. Shastri was 76.

A communiqu? issued by the BJP?s Bihar unit said Shastri had gone to the toilet near Bakhtiyarpur. ?When he did not come out even after the train reached Patna, the door of the toilet was broken. A doctor was called to the place but he was declared dead,? the release said.

Later, Shastri?s body was flown to Calcutta, where he lived with his family, by a BSF aircraft.

Shastri was a member of the West Bengal Assembly on a Janata Party ticket from 1977 to 1982. He was twice the president of BJP?s Bengal unit and once the party?s national vice-president. A former member of the Rajya Sabha, Shastri was also the governor of Himachal Pradesh before serving in Uttar Pradesh in the same capacity.

Shastri was a well-known literary figure and had also secured a first class first in Hindi (MA) from Calcutta University. Bihar Governor Buta Singh has expressed grief over Shastri?s death.