BJP MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli Passes Away

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru Nov 18, 2015 : Former minister and sitting MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli died of cardiac arrest in the city on Tuesday morning. He was 74. A six-time MLA, he was last elected from Bidar Assembly constituency on a BJP ticket in 2013.

 

He is survived by three sons and two daughters. His name was synonymous with various initiatives in the cooperative sector.

He had also served as a minister in the cabinets of S R Bommai, J H Patel and N Dharam Singh.

He entered the Vidhana Soudha by winning the 1985 Assembly polls, which had resulted in the formation of the first-ever non-Congress state government.

He had left the Janata parivar in 1999 and unsuccessfully contested as the Congress candidate only to bounce back in the 2004 elections.  Nagamarapalli, however, did not last long in the Congress and had joined the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha elections. However, he lost to Dharam Singh.  He was elected three times to the Vidhana Soudha from the Janata Parivar, twice from Congress and once from BJP.

He served as the chairman of the Bidar district Credit Cooperative Bank for over three decades. He also established the Naranja Cooperative Sugar Factory in the district, and remained its chairman for many years.  Paying rich tribute to the departed leader, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “I have lost one of my closest friends who had contributed a lot to the  cooperative movement.”

Breaking down on the sudden death of Nagamarapalli, former PM H D Deve Gowda said, “ I have lost one of my best friends ...”

With Nagamarapalli’s demise, the strength of the 225-member Assembly has fallen to 223. Congress MLA A Venkatesha Naik died in a train accident in August.

Byelections to both the seats are likely to be announced by the Central Election Commission shortly.

 

Courtesy:The Indian Express