BJP MP from Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar and former Union Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad died on April 29.
| Photo Credit: M.A. SRIRAM

BJP MP from Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar and former Union Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital here, died on April 29, family sources said.

He was 76. Prasad is survived by his wife and three daughters.

The last rites will be performed as per Buddhist rituals at the B.R. Ambedkar Educational and Cultural Trust on Mananthavadi Road in Mysuru on April 30.

The six-time MP from Chamarajanagar and two-time MLA from Nanjangud in Mysuru district was ailing for some time.

On March 18 this year, Prasad announced his retirement from electoral politics, marking an end to his almost 50 years in public life.

He started his political career with the erstwhile Janata Party in 1976 and joined the Congress in 1979. He also had a stint with the JD(S), JD(U), and the Samata Party before joining the BJP.

Prasad served as the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 1999 to 2004.

He joined the Congress later, got elected as an MLA in 2013 and became the Revenue and Religious Endowment Minister in the Siddaramaiah government.

In 2016, Prasad resigned from the Karnataka Assembly and rejoined the BJP. He contested the 2017 Nanjangud bypolls on a BJP ticket but lost.

Interestingly, considered a Congress stronghold, the BJP wrested the Chamarajanagar constituency from the party in 2019, with Prasad — who was forced to return to electoral politics under pressure after his rout in the byelection to the Nanjangud Assembly seat in 2017 — winning the seat. He won in a closely fought battle. Prasad defeated the then-incumbent MP R. Dhruvanarayan by a slim margin.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had recently called on Prasad at the latter’s residence in Mysuru, sparking political speculations.

(With inputs from PTI)