Kolar: Former union minister R L Jalappa no more

Kolar: Senior Congress leader and former union minister R L Jalappa passed away on Friday at the RL Jalappa Hospital in Kolar after a long period of illness.

Sources said that Jalappa was being treated in the ICU of the hospital for brain hemorrhage. for the past few days. He was bedridden for the past few years after a stroke left him paralyzed.

As a prominent politician, Jalappa was actively associated with the Congress party till 1979. He left Congress to start a new political party called Karnatak Kranti Ranga with D Devaraj Urs. The party was later subsumed under the Janata Party. !0 years later he joined the Janata Dal. In 1996 he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Chikkaballapur and was made the Union Textile Minister, a post he held until he resigned in 1998 to join Congress again. He was again elected to the Lok Sabha and continued to be its member till 2009.

Several other prominent politicians in the state, including those in the Congress, BJP, and JD(S) condoled the death of the veteran leader. Expressing his grief Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said  Jalappa’s death is a great loss to the virtuous politics in the state.