Union Minister Ananth Kumar passes away

Union Fertilizer & Chemicals, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar died early morning at a private hospital in Bengaluru. He represented Bengaluru South since 1996, and won non-stop for six terms. He was 59 years.
In his second term itself, he became Union Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet. He has earlier served as Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister. He is survived by wife, Tejaswini and two daughters. The couple successfully ran Adamya Chetana, a nonprofit that is engaged in a host of social service activities including providing hot midday meals to about two lakh school children everyday.
Kumar had become invincible as a politician, and it was difficult to defeat him. In his first election in 1996, he defeated Varalakshmi Gundu Rao, wife of former CM the late Gundu Rao, and in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he defeated then UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani by a huge margin.
Ananthkumar had been ailing for some time, and was treated at hospitals in London and New York. For the last few weeks, he was being treated at Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Shakarapuram, Bengaluru. He had been on oxygen support in the last few days after his health condition did not show much progress.
The news of his death came as a shock to voters in Basavanagudi, where he lived, as he had been very active until recently. He actively campaigned for the May 12 Assembly polls, along with other Union Ministers Prakash Javdekar and Piyush Goyal. He was the go-to man for BJP leaders in Karnataka, and a principal trouble-shooter for the party.