Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent heart bypass surgery Saturday, media reports said. The procedure began in the morning and was expected to last seven or eight hours, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Dr. Sudhir Vaishnav from the Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai as saying. A team of 11 doctors was involved in the surgery, Vaishnav said. The 76-year-old leader _ who has a history of heart problems _ complained of chest pains earlier in the week and underwent a series of tests. His spokeswoman Deepak Sandhu said Friday that Singh would undergo «coronary artery bypass graft surgery» performed by a combined team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the country's top state-run hospital, and the Asian Heart Institute. Singh has been prime minister since 2004. Singh, the country's first prime minister from the Sikh faith, had bypass surgery in England in 1990 and another heart procedure in 2004. Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee will take charge of the finance ministry, which was looked after by Singh and will chair any meetings of India's Cabinet while the prime minister recovers from surgery, Sandhu said.
