The oldest Member of Parliament and nonagenarian Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ramachandra Veerappa passed away at a corporate hospital in Hyderabad on Sunday evening.
The 96-year-old Veerappa, a seven-time MP from Bidar in neighbouring Karnataka, was brought to Global Hospital for treatment of kidney dysfunction. He died due to multiple organ failure.
He leaves behind his wife Revamma, three sons and four daughters. The body was shifted to his hometown Humnabad where it will be cremated with full state honours on Monday.
A veteran freedom fighter and prominent Arya Samaj leader, Veerappa had played a key role in the Hyderabad-Karnataka liberation movement to free the region from Nizam's rule.
In his political career spanning six decades, the revered Dalit leader served as a member of the assembly in the erstwhile Hyderabad state and the Old Mysore State (now Karnataka) after Kannada-speaking areas of Hyderabad state were merged with Mysore in 1956.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bidar (SC- reserved) constituency on Congress ticket in 1962 and 1967. He lost in the subsequent elections to the Lok Sabha in 1971 and 1977. He then joined the BJP and elected to Lok Sabha five times from 1991. Though the aging leader had serious health problems in the run-up to the recent Lok Sabha election, the BJP renominated him.
