The last rites of the former Minister, Chandraprabha Urs (70), daughter of D. Devaraj Urs, was held at her native village of Kallahalli in Hunsur taluk of Mysuru district on Wednesday.
Ms. Urs passed away at a private hospital in the city on Tuesday evening after a prolonged illness.
Earlier in the day, senior political leaders, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his Cabinet colleagues, paid their last respects to Chandraprabha Urs, whose body lay in state at her residence in Lakshmipuram.
Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled her contribution to the region and said that the State had lost a great leader who worked for the upliftment of the downtrodden community. A vital link to Devaraj Urs, who ushered in people-friendly policies, has been snapped for ever, he added.
Home Minister G. Parameshwara, Minister for Cooperation H.S. Mahadevaprasad, Revenue Minister V. Srinivas Prasad, Tanvir Sait, MLA, M.K. Somashekar, Vasu and others too expressed their grief and commiserated with the family.
In the afternoon, the mortal remains of Chandraprabha were first taken to Hunsur and from there to Kalahalli for the last rites which took place around 3 p.m. with full State honours.
Her son, Manjunath Urs, lit the pyre and her sister, Bharati Urs, and other relatives, G.T. Deve Gowda, Chamundeshwari MLA, Chikkamadhu, local MLA, Mr. V. Srinivas Prasad, were present.
Chandraprabha Urs received her primary education at Kalahalli, completed her pre-university from Maharani’s College in Mysuru before shifting to Bengaluru for higher studies.
She entered active politics after the demise of her father Devaraj Urs and was elected from Hunsur in the Assembly elections in 1983, became the Minister for Social Welfare in R. Ramakrishna Hegde’s Cabinet and was re-elected in the 1989 elections.
She also contested as a Congress candidate against Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, who had then joined the BJP, in the Parliamentary elections in 1991 and had defeated him.
But in the following years her career took a nosedive and though active in the party, she faded from active politics.
She further receded from public life after an accident in 2007 which led to complications in her health.
Her death comes even as the State Government is celebrating the centenary of her father Devaraj Urs.
