Vedavyasa Srinivas Acharya, paterfamilias of the BJP in Karnataka, died of a heart attack, minutes before his address to government college teachers here on Tuesday, throwing the state unit into turmoil and an inconsolably sobbing chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda declaring it would be difficult for him to present his maiden budget in view of the void caused by the demise of this gentleman politician.
The 73-year-old higher education minister, who arrived at the Legislative Council on a wheelchair recently in view of his failing health, held the state unit together often dousing internal squabbles from the day the party captured power south of the Vindhyas in May 2008.
Approached by senior leaders to take over the mantle from a beleaguered B.S. Yeddyurappa, he chose to turn them down and defend the leader. He battled criticism of the government over issues like church attacks and moral policing in coastal areas. His early initiative to stop human transportation of night soil during his reign as president of Udupi town municipality made him something of a legend.
Acharya’s body, rushed to his official residence on Race Course Road, was placed in the open courtyard till 4 pm for party workers to pay homage, and later flown to Udupi for cremation on Tuesday night in the presence of party patriarch L.K. Advani, national general secretary Ananth Kumar, Mr Sadananda Gowda and several ministers.