At about 6.20 Tuesday morning, Munde was on his way to the Delhi airport when an Indica car crashed into the minister's SX4 car at the the Prithviraj Road and Aurobindo Chowk cross-section in the heart of the capital.

Doctors quoted the minister's personal staff as saying that the vehicle crashed into the car on the side that the minister was seated in the rear seat. Munde, who seemed to have suffered minor injuries, was in shock, his staff members said. He had asked for water, they said.

Munde's driver and personal assistant were in the front and were unhurt. They rushed him to the trauma centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"There was no spontaneous breathing and no cardiac activity when he was brought to the hospital," a doctor said. The doctors tried to revive the minister, but could not and pronounced him dead at 7.20 am.

The driver of the Indica has been detained according to police.

Munde's last rites will be performed in Parli on Wednesday. The Government has decided that the National flag will be flown at half mast in Delhi and capitals of the states and Union territories, as a mark of respect to the departed dignitary. The National flag will be flown at half mast on the day of the funeral at the place where the funeral will take place.

Munde, who was sworn in as a cabinet minister last week in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet, was to have taken an early morning flight to Mumbai. He was to have addressed a series of public meetings in Beed.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President M. Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railways Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Sports Sarbananda Sonowal and others have deeply condoled the passing away of Gopi Nath Munde.