Former MLA U R Sabhapathi passes away

Former Udupi MLA U R Sabhapathi died on Sunday at his residence in Udupi after a brief illness, family sources said. Sabhapathi, 71, has been ailing for some time and failed to respond to treatment.

He is survived by wife, daughter and two sons.

Sabhapathi was elected MLA from the Udupi Assembly constituency in 1994 on the Karnataka Congress Party (KCP) ticket. Later, the KCP merged with the Congress and he was re-elected from Udupi in 1999 as a Congress candidate. He lost to Raghupati Bhat of BJP in the 2004 elections. In the 2012 Lok Sabha elections, Sabhapathi joined the JD (S) and contested for the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency.

Sabhapathi was member of the Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat. He had also served as Youth Congress president from Dakshina Kannada (North).