2:31pm Monday 15th March 2010
By Peter Barron
I am shocked and very sad to hear the news that North-East MP Ashok Kumar has been found dead at his home on Teesside.
Ashok, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, was well known to us here at The Northern Echo and tributes are flooding in as I write this blog.
He had written several pieces for the paper and I knew him as a courteous, sensitive, passionate man.
Indeed, he had written a personal piece for tomorrow's paper, in which he talks about steel having a bright future on Teesside despite the mothballing of Teesside Cast Products.
If possible, I'd like to go ahead and publish the piece as part of the tributes to his work as a community politician.
Although we wouldn't publish the article without getting permission from those close to him, it seems to me that it would underline is passion for the area.
The police are saying it is too early to say whether the death is suspicious in any way.
I can only say how sorry I am and my condolences go out to his family and friends.
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