Indian PM 'stable' after heart op

Mr Singh's surgery comes just months before a general election in India

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in a stable condition after undergoing a heart bypass operation in Delhi, Indian media report.

The 76-year-old was expected to be in intensive care for at least 48 hours.

The surgery was carried out after two blockages were found in his arteries. Mr Singh previously had bypass surgery in 1990 and an angioplasty in 2004.

The ruling Congress Party says he will still lead the party in the forthcoming general election which is due by May.

"The entire country is rejoicing because our prime minister has come out successfully from the operation," Congress spokesman Veerappa Moily was quoted by AFP as saying.

Mr Singh underwent tests earlier this week after he complained of chest pains.

The bypass was performed by doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's top state-run hospital, and the Asian Heart Institute.

Before the operation, doctors said there was "very little risk" to Mr Singh and that the prime minister should be fit to resume normal duties in three to four weeks.

Succession speculation

But the BBC's Jill McGivering says this is not a good time for the prime minister to be removed from the political fray, given the tense relations with Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

Will Rahul Gandhi emerge as a successor to Mr Singh?

Congress has so far dismissed concerns that Mr Singh's health would interfere with its current election campaign.

But there has been widespread speculation that party chief Sonia Gandhi has been lining up her son, Rahul Gandhi, heir to India's powerful Gandhi dynasty, as the country's next prime minister.

Mr Singh has largely been in good health since he was sworn in as prime minister in May 2004, but he recently underwent prostate surgery and has also had cataract treatment.

Mr Singh, who studied economics at Cambridge and Oxford, became India's finance minister in 1991 when the country was plunging towards bankruptcy, and is widely regarded as the architect of the country's economic reform programme.

The quietly spoken economist-politician is also seen as the cleanest politician in India, a subject dear to voters' hearts.

Government officials said that Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee will take charge of cabinet meetings during the prime minister's absence.