The relatives of Priya Ranjan Das Munshi pray for his speedy recovery. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Oct. 13: Family members and neighbours of Priya Ranjan Das Munshi are offering prayers and organising yagnas for his speedy recovery.

The Union minister for information and broadcasting left for Delhi on Friday, along with his wife Deepa and their son Priyadip. Asim Ranjan Das Munshi, the younger brother of the minister, received the news of the illness from the personal assistant of the minister around 12.30am today.

“I am in constant touch with the doctors of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), where he is undergoing treatment,” said Asim, the minister’s only brother who stays in the Seth Colony residence, their ancestral house in Kaliaganj.

“We first realised that he is not feeling well when we noticed that he did not offer aratis on Ashtami and Navami. He used to perform aratis in front of the Goddess Durga every year,” he said. “When we asked him whether he was feeling unwell, he replied that everything was okay.”

Asim himself offered puja to the Boira Kalibari here this morning and sent flowers and prasad to AIIMS with his brother Pabitra. He has also requested the MP of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh to collect bibhuti from Sai Baba and send it to AIIMS.

The neighbours and members of North Dinajpur district Congress are also praying and performing pujas.

About eight to 10 families of Seth Colony have decided to hold special prayer and yagna for the minister tomorrow. Some members of the district Congress have already offered prayers at Tarapith for the wellness of Das Munshi.

Taradevi Chakraborty, an 80-year-old resident of the locality who knows the minister from his childhood, was shocked when she heard that he had suffered heart attack.

“I know ‘Vaiddya’ from the time he was born and when I came to know that he was taken to the hospital, I became very upset,” she said. “I have decided to organise, bipadnashini yagna tomorrow.”