Bangalore : The recently appointed state president of JD(S), A Krishnappa, who was a candidate from Tumkur in the April 17 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka, died of heart attack here on Wednesday. He was 68.

Krishnappa was at a college club near his house in his former K R Puram constituency in Bangalore when he suffered the heart attack.

A member of the backward caste Golla community, Krishnappa was drafted into the JD(S) only last year by party national president H D Deve Gowda after the former quit the Congress for being denied a ticket to contest the 2013 assembly polls in the state.

He had been in the Congress for over three decades and had been a minister several times.
Deve Gowda had appointed him as the party state president in September in an effort to brush aside criticism that his party was largely being controlled by the former prime minister and his sons. Deve Gowda also attempted to use Krishnappa to counter Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah’s efforts to emerge a backward caste leader.

Krishnappa was elected to the assembly for the first of four terms in 1985 from Varthur constituency. He served as minister for horticulture, animal husbandry, sugar and social welfare. He was running a string of educational institutions