The former Lok Sabha member, S. Nanjesh Gowda, 86, passed away here on Thursday. He is survived by his wife Mahalakshmi and three children and had been suffering from age-related ailments.
Mr. Gowda was elected to the Lok Sabha on a Janata Party ticket in 1977. He was one of the two non-Congress members elected to the Lok Sabha from Karnataka in those elections — the other being K.S. Hegde, who contested from Bangalore South. Mr. Gowda, a native of Shivara village in Channarayapatna taluk, obtained his BE degree from the Engineering College in Davangere. Entering politics in the 1960s, he was initially associated with the Praja Socialist Party. He has held the posts of a taluk development board president in 1968, small industries advisory board member, Mysore University senate member, and the vice-president of the Malnad Technical Education Society.