Leading Congress figure killed

Rajesh Pilot: Known as the Congress Party's "conscience keeper"

A senior member of India's opposition Congress Party, Rajesh Pilot, has died in a car crash in the northern state of Rajasthan.

A jeep he was driving was in a head-on collision with a bus as he was returning to Jaipur from his constituency in Dausa.

He championed the downtrodden, the poor and the country's farmers

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee

Mr Pilot, 55, was rushed to hospital, where he was put on a life support system, but he died two hours later.

One of Mr Pilot's bodyguards died instantly in the crash.

Three other people in the jeep, including a member of the state assembly, suffered serious injuries.

At his home in Delhi, some of the top leaders of the Congress Party and senior leaders from across the political spectrum arrived to pay their condolences to his widow within minutes of hearing the news.

Congress Party 'stalwart'

The Congress Party leader, Sonia Gandhi, was among the first to arrive.

She said the party had lost "a stalwart who was an able administrator, a capable parliamentarian and a lovable personality".

Mr Pilot was often referred to as the Congress Party's "conscience keeper".

The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, said Mr Pilot would be remembered for his "fighting spirit" in the service of the nation.

Sonia Gandhi: Said the party had lost one of its stalwarts

The BBC's Delhi correspondent. Satish Jacob, says that when Mr Pilot entered politics in the early 1980s he represented a refreshingly different breed of politicians.

Humble background

He came from a very humble background, in both the financial and caste sense.

His father was a small farmer and the family belonged to a backward caste, known as the Gujjars.

He was also quite different from some of his colleagues in the Congress Party, in that he could be quite outspoken and unorthodox, the BBC correspondent says.

He would question the prevailing thinking and dare to raise issues which other might prefer to brush under the carpet.

Mr Pilot served as internal security minister in the government of former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in 1991-1995.

Analysts say he was also successful in opening lines of communication with Muslim leaders in Kashmir during his tenure.

Mr Pilot is survived by his wife Rama, a son and a daughter.