Mangaluru, Jul 5: Former Karkala MLA Hutturke Gopal Bhandary, who was about to celebrate his 67th birthday this weekend, died of heart attack on board a bus last night.
The end came when he was travelling alone in a KSRTC multi-axle bus from Bengaluru to Mangaluru.
The bus driver found the two-time Congress MLA slumped on the bus seat when it reached the main KSRTC bus station at Bejai around 10.15 pm. He had alighted from the bus when it stopped for a coffee break near KB Cross around 4.30 pm.
Mngaluru city police chief, Sandeep Patil said the former MLA came from Bengaluru to Mangaluru by (KSRTC) Volvo Bus. KSRTC Mangaluru divisional controller, Ashraf, who first responded to an alert from bus driver said that when he visited the bus, the former MLA was motionless and had developed froth near the mouth. We immediately shifted him to hospital, he said.
Born on July 7, 1952, Bhandary represented Karkala constituency twice– first from 1999 to 2004 and then again from 2008 to 2013. While he won the seat in 2008 defeating V Sunil Kumar of BJP by a margin of 1,537 votes, Bhandary made his maiden foray to the state assembly defeating K P Shenoy of the BJP in 1999. He lost to Sunil Kumar in 2004 only to emerge victorious in 2008. Sunil Kumar again won the seat in 2018.
Former MLA JR Lobo, who rushed to the hospital on hearing the news, expressed shock at the demise of his former party colleague. The doctors did their best to revive Bhandary, MLA said, adding that perhaps he was brought dead.
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