BJP’s ex-Union minister Sreenivasa Prasad dies at 76, PM expresses grief

V Sreenivasa Prasad, a senior BJP MP from Karnataka's Chamarajanagar and former Union minister, died at the age of 76 on Monday.

According to his family, Prasad was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Bengaluru, sources with his family told news agency PTI.

The six-time MP from Chamarajanagar and two-time MLA from Nanjangud in Mysuru district was going through health ailment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his condolences and  tweeted, “I am extremely pained by the passing away of senior leader and MP from Chamarajanagar, Shri V. Sreenivasa Prasad Ji. He was a champion of social justice, having devoted his life to the welfare of the poor, downtrodden and marginalised.”

"He was very popular for his various works of community service. Condolences to his family and supporters. Om Shanti," he wrote on X.

Last month in March, 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 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.

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

Later, he joined the Congress, 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. He then successfully fought the Lok Sabha election from Chamarajanagar in 2019.