Bengaluru:  Varalakshmi Gundu Rao, wife of former Chief Minister late R. Gundu Rao, passed away last night in Bengaluru following brief illness. 

She leaves behind two sons — MLA and former KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao and Mahesh Gundu Rao — and a host of relatives and friends. Her another son and actor Rajesh Gundurao had passed away in 2012.

Varalakshmi had entered politics after the death of her husband in 1993. She had contested the Parliamentary elections on a Congress ticket in 1996 against H.N. Ananth Kumar of BJP from Bengaluru South Constituency, but had lost the election.

Last rites at the family’s farm in Devanahalli today.