Three-time Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Shyam Charan died in Raipur on Wednesday.

Eighty two-year-old Shukla, who was ailing for sometime, breathed his last at a hospital in Raipur, Madhya Pradesh, authorities said.

He is survived by wife Padmini, son Amitesh and three daughters. Former Union Minister V C Shukla is his younger brother.

Shukla was elected thrice as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister in 1969, 1975 an 1989 before it was bifurcated into two states, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in November 2000.

Known as 'Vagirath,' Shukla had laboured hard to take Mahanadi's run-off waters to the state's rice fields.

Paying tributes, leaders including former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi recalled the veteran Congress leader's efforts in channeling water to Chhattisgarh's paddy fields, where 80 per cent of the people depended on agriculture.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi called up Shukla's son Amitesh to convey her condolences. Union Minister Shivraj Patil and All India Congress Committee treasurer Motilal Vohra will be attending the late leader's last rights in Raipur in the afternoon.

Born on February 27, 1925, Shukla had joined the freedom struggle at the age of 17. His father Pandit Ravi Shanker Shukla was the first chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.