Newly-elected Congress MLA from Jamkhandi in Karnataka, Siddappa Bhimappa Nyamgoud today (28 May) died in a tragic road accident. He was 67 years old and was one of the 78 Congress MLAs who won in the recent state assembly elections.

A former union minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government, he held the Bagalkot Lok Sabha seat from 1991 to 1996, as reported by DNA.

Nyamgoud shot to prominence with his giant killing act of defeating the then charismatic leader of Janata Party and two-time Karnataka Chief Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde, from Bagalkot Lok Sabha Seat.

The accident happened when he was travelling to Jamkhandi from the Goa airport at about 4.30 am. He suffered serious injuries when his Innova’s tyre burst and it rammed into a wall. He died on the way to the hospital.

He was reportedly being considered for a ministerial berth in the new JD(S)-Congress coalition government. He was re-elected to the Jamkhandi seat by defeating BJP’s Shrikanth Subbarao Kulkarni by a margin of just over 2,500 votes.

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted out a condolence message, describing Nyamgoud as a ‘dear friend’.

With the tragic demise of Nyamgoud the strength of the Congress legislative party in the state now stands at 76. Elections to two assembly seats in Karnataka are being held today along with by-polls at 10 other assembly seats and four Lok Sabha seats across 10 states in the country.

In Karnataka, the polls are being held at the Rajarajeshwari (RR) Nagar assembly seat, which was countermanded earlier due to large scale irregularities, and at the Jayanagar assembly seat in Bengaluru city today.