Freedom fighter B V Kakkilaya is no more

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, June 4, 2012 : B. V. Kakkilaya, freedom fighter, CPI leader, and former MP, died at 2:00 a.m. on June 4, Monday at the age of 93. On May 23, he was admitted to a private hospital, where the doctors treated him for brain hemorrhage and put him on a ventilator. But Mr. Kakkilaya could not be saved.

Born on April 11, 1919, Kakkilaya played an important role in the unification of Karnataka. Popularly known as BVK, he was also a writer and a scholar and was involved in several associations and movements ever since his youth. He also had a role to play in setting up the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in Karnataka and played an important role in launching land reforms in Karnataka.

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1952 to 1954 and a legislator from Bantwal in the Karnataka assembly. In the forties, he actively participated in the Quit India Movement and many other freedom movements. He has always been a strong supporter of farmers.

His wife died in 1998. BVK has left behind 4 sons—Shrinivas, a doctor in Mangalore, Venkatakrishna, a neonatologist in the US, Harish, a laproscopic surgeon in the US, and Suryanarayana, a psychiatrist in the UK.