Ex-Union Minister and former MP Dhanajaya Kumar Dead

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Mar 04, 2019: Former Lok Sabha MP of Mangalore Constituency V. Dhananjaya Kumar has died aged 67. He succumbed to renal failure at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon (4th March) at Unity Hospital in the city. He had been ailing since several months and his health had been the subject of speculation from time to time. He had been in coma for some time. In fact, few months back a rumour that he had died had spread like wildfire.

His body will be kept for paying last respects at his residence in Chandrika Layout, Kadri Kambla on Tuesday, 5th March from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Later his body will be taken to his native village of Venur and funeral will be performed there.

Dhananjaya Kumar was born into a Jain family on 4 July 1951 at Venur village of Belthangady Taluk. He had his early education in Moodabidri. He was a lawyer by profession before taking the plunge into politics.  He is survived by wife Vanitha and two children. His son Parineeth is an architect and his daughter Pavitra is an engineer. 

Dhananjay Kumar was the first BJP man to win an MP election in Mangalore.  In 1991, he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha defeating the Congress stalwart B. Janardhana Poojary. Dhananjay Kumar had served as MP of Mangalore from 1991 to 2004 winning four successive elections. He was earlier elected as an MLA of the city before he became an MP and had been credited with breaking through the Congress  bastion.

He had served in the Union Government during the Vajpayee era as cabinet minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism in 1996, Union Minister of State for Finance from 1999–2000 and Union Minister of State for Textiles from 2000–2003.

Of late he had been estranged from BJP and had been sidelined. Being a staunch loyalist of former Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa, he had quit the party along with Yediyurappa few years back to establish Karnataka Janatha Party (KJP). His mentor soon returned to BJP, but Dhananjaya Kumar was not welcomed back to the party. He had then joined BJP’s arch nemesis Congress, but his political graph had already taken a nosedive and never recovered. Subsequently, his health too had deteriorated result in his demise this afternoon.