Bengaluru: MLA and senior BJP leader C.M. Udasi (85), who was also a former Minister, passed away at a Private Hospital in Bengaluru on Tuesday afternoon following age-related illness.

Channamallappa Mahalingappa Udasi, a six-time MLA from Hanagal Assembly segment in Haveri district, had served as a Minister in Janata Dal and BJP Governments headed by Ramakrishna Hegde, J.H. Patel, H.D. Kumaraswamy and B.S. Yediyurappa.

He is survived by his wife Neelamma, daughter Jayashri and son Shivakumar Udasi, the current BJP MP from Haveri Lok Sabha Constituency.

Udasi had served as PWD Minister in Yediyurappa Government in 2008, as RDPR Minister in BJP-JD(S) Coalition Government before that and as Forest Minister in the 1980s. Identifying himself with the Socialist Movement at the beginning of his political career, Udasi contested Assembly polls from Hanagal segment successively for 9 terms starting from 1983 as an independent candidate, winning six times and losing thrice.

When Yediyurapa broke away from the BJP and formed KJP, he followed him and unsuccessfully contested on a KJP ticket in the 2013 Assembly polls. Udasi  returned to the BJP along with Yediyurappa and wrested the seat (Hanagal) back in the 2018 Assembly polls.

Last rites were performed with State honours at his native village in Haveri district this afternoon.