Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh successfully underwent heart bypass surgery Saturday, doctors said, adding that he would be fit to campaign for upcoming elections, according to AP. The 76-year-old Singh, who has held office since 2004, has been expected to run as the Congress Party's candidate for prime minister in elections to be held before May. Singh will be able to fully recover and resume his duties in six weeks, said Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, one of the team of 11 surgeons and doctors involved in the medical procedure. The team included doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the country's top state-run hospital, and the Asian Heart Institute. «There won't be any restrictions on his campaigning,» said Dr. A Sampath Kumar, another doctor on the team, adding that Singh chose to have the surgery at this time to make sure that he was fit in time for the elections. Also running as candidates for Singh's party are star campaigners Sonia Gandhi, chief of the Congress Party, and her son Rahul Gandhi, both of whom represent the party in Parliament. The procedure, which lasted nearly 11 hours, began early Saturday morning, said Reddy, adding that the prime minister was conscious and stable and being monitored in the hospital's intensive care unit. Singh, who has a history of heart problems, complained of chest pains earlier in the week and underwent a series of tests. 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, Singh's spokeswoman Deepak Sandhu said. Singh has long been viewed as the consummate non-politician, a sober technocrat more comfortable with the arcane details of economic policy than the rough-and-tumble world of Indian politics. As finance minister Singh orchestrated India's 1991 turn from a socialist-style economy to a capitalist one. He has never won a direct election and was a surprise choice for prime minister when a Congress-led coalition unexpectedly won 2004 elections, after Italian-born Sonia Gandhi turned down the job but retained leadership of the party. He qualifies to be prime minister because he is an appointed member of the upper house, the Rajya Sabha.
