Former union minister V Dhananjay Kumar passes away

Former union minister V Dhananjay Kumar passed away here at a private hospital on Monday.

67-year-old Kumar was suffering from multiple organ dysfunction syndrome for a long time and was under treatment for the last 8 months. His condition is said to have worsened in the last few months as he was unconscious.

Kumar began his stint in politics with Jana Sangh and entered the BJP in 1983, after which he contested polls from Mangaluru constituency and subsequently became an MP and worked as a minister in the central government at the time when late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the aviation minister.

In 1991, he entered the Parliament for the first time after defeating Janardhan Poojary. Later he represented the Mangaluru Lok Sabha constituency four times, consecutively.

Kumar was born in Dakshina Kannada district in Jain community and obtained a degree in law from Udupi.