Chennai/Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5 (IANS) : Mercy Ravi, wife of Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, died of kidney failure early Saturday at the Madras Medical Mission Hospital in Chennai, family sources said. She was 63.

A former Congress legislator from Kottayam in Kerala, Mercy died around 3 a.m. Ravi and their three children were at her bedside when she died. She had been admitted to the hospital on Aug 27.

Her body was scheduled to be flown to Kochi on a special aircraft. The funeral will take place in Ravi's ancestral home at Vayalar in Kerala's Alappuzha district Saturday, the sources said.

Born in a Christian family in Ernakulam, Mercy entered the political arena as a student activist. She and Ravi were married after an eight-year love affair, says ormer Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy.

"Ravi was senior to Mercy at college (Maharaja's College) and the two got married in 1969 concluding a eight-year-long love affair. Over the years, she had been the guiding force for Ravi. Apart from being Ravi's wife, she was a politician who read a lot," Chandy told IANS.

"As the legislator from Kottayam from 2001-06, I was amazed in the manner how she ran the affairs of her constituency. Her departure is certainly going to be a huge void for the party in the state," he added.

Mercy held several key posts in the Congress party and was general secretary of the party in the state and the Kerala Pradesh Mahila Congress.

At the national level, she was elected president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress' women's committee in 2000.

She was also a representative of the Asia Pacific Region International Confederation of Trade UnionS.

It was at the fag end of her tenure in the Kerala assembly (2001-06) that her health deteriorated and she was constantly under treatment for kidney problems.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony said his relation with Mercy went beyond the realm of politics.

"I was always part of all important milestones in their career and the relations that I had with them was more personal in nature," said Antony.

Shocked to hear of her death, state Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi said: "We got to know each other well during 2001-06 when I too was a first-time legislator. I always admired her knowledge. Even though we sat on opposite sides in the assembly, we always shared many things," said Sreemathi, a central committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

Popular Malayalam filmmaker Sathyan Anthicaud said he had lost a very close friend.

"She had played a key role in conducting my marriage," Anthicaud fondly recalled.