Kalaburagi: Freedom fighter and former legislator Vidhyadhar Guruji died here on Saturday night. He was 105. He is survived by wife Savitri, three sons and a daughter.
Guruji collapsed after paying last respects to former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh on Thursday morning. He was rushed to Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology here, where he died of cardiac arrest.
As a student, he was rusticated from school for organising a protest against the British for sentencing Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev to death in 1931. Guruji, as he was fondly called, was sentenced to three months imprisonment by the Nizam of Hyderabad for participating in the anti-Nizam struggle.
After Independence, like many freedom fighters Guruji was drawn to the Congress. But soon he was disenchanted with that party. He left it and joined hands with emerging leader Vishwanth Reddy Mudnal. In 1962, he contested from Gurumitkal constituency against Congress leader Kolur Mallappa as an independent and won.
In 1984, Guruji contested the Lok Sabha elections from Gulbarga as a Janata Party candidate against former Chief Minister Veerendra Patil of the Congress and lost it. He was a member of the Upper House from 1988 to 2004.
His body would be handed over to the Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College as per his wish.
