NEW DELHI: Former Indian prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao became so unpopular with his party that when he died in 2004, his funeral pyre burnt with no one to stop stray dogs that attacked the remains, the author of a new biography says.

In an article in the Indian Express on Friday author Vinay Sitapati, who claims to have had access to Rao’s private papers, spoke of the forthcoming book: Half-Lion: How P V Narasimha Rao Transformed India.

He said Sonia Gandhi, a grieving widow during Rao’s tenure, and he were on poor terms, which worsened with the demolition of the Babri Masjid under his watch.

He used the Intelligence Bureau to spy on her, since many of his ministers were secretly reporting to her. She in turn kept tabs on him through her Congress colleagues.

When Rao died in December 2004, his family wanted the body cremated in Delhi. “This is his karmabhoomi”, Rao’s son Prabhakara told then prime minister Manmohan Singh. “But Sonia’s closest aides ensured that the body was moved to Hyderabad,” Sitapati says.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016