Ramchandra Singh Deo, who was the first finance minister of Chhattisgarh, died on Thursday night at Ramkrishna Hospital in Raipur, ANI reported. The 88-year-old Congress leader had been unwell for a while and was scheduled to travel to New Delhi for treatment.

Deo was a member of the Koriya royal family and was the king of the erstwhile kingdom, which is now Chattisgarh’s Koriya district. Before joining politics, he worked as a photographer with filmmaker Satyajit Ray, reported The Indian Express.

Deo was born on February 13, 1930, in Baikunthpur in Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district. He earned a master’s degree in science as well as a doctorate in life science. He worked as the minister of water resources in Madhya Pradesh before Chhattisgarh was carved out in 2000 as a separate state. The state’s first chief minister, Ajit Jogi, gave Deo the vital portfolio of finance.

Deo wrote books on economy and about the Maoist-hit Bastar district, according to The Indian Express.