K'taka CM, leaders condole Subbaiah's death

Bengaluru: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah condoled the death of Subbaiah.

Gowda tweeted: “I am deeply hurt to learn about the demise of A K Subbaiah who started off from Jan Sangh and later became the BJP state president to take up various pro-people movements.”

Recalling the late leader’s imprisonment during the Emergency, Gowda said, “Subbaiah was my intimate friend and during the emergency went to jail together”.

In his message, Yediyurappa said he was deeply pained to learn about the demise of the veteran politician and former MLA.

Yediyurappa recalled him as a person who earned fame for being blunt and outspoken and said he was a great parliamentarian who presented his views in a logical way.

Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah said Subbaiah’s death was his personal loss.

“In Subbaiah’s death, I have lost a friend. A revolutionary and outspoken person, who minced no words while reacting to the contentious issues of the prevailing time,” said Siddaramaiah in his condolence message.

Firebrand politician and the first Karnataka unit president of BJP A K Subbaiah died on Tuesday at a private hospital due to age-related ailments, family sources said.

Subbaiah, 83, is survived by wife and five sons, they said.

A native of Kodagu district, he was associated with the Jan Sangh and when it emerged in the new avatar of BJP, he was assigned the role of its state president.

After helming the BJP in the state for some years, he had joined the Congress in the late 1980s and later moved to JDS.

He was not active politically for a long time till his demise.