DAVANAGERE: As an educationalist and humanitarian, Shamanur Shivashankrappa worked for the welfare of students. One incident that drew attention took place in 1986, when the Davanagere PG Centre of the University of Mysore was shifted to Mysore by then Vice-Chancellor Dr YP Rudrappa.
Shivashankarappa, who got angry over the issue, took the stake holders from Davangere and launched a big agitation. He held a Bangalore Chalo movement and met the then chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde during the legislative session in the Vidhana Soudha and apprised him of the issue. Thus the PG Centre remained at Davanagere, which subsequently became the PG Centre of Kuvempu University and is now under Davanagere University.
D Basavaraj, an ardent supporter of Shivashankarappa, said, “Even though Hegde invited Shivashankarappa to Janatha Party, he kept his loyalty and did not desert Congress. Hegde also lauded the motto of the delegation, which came for such a small matter, and told Shivashankarappa that if he agreed, he would be appointed the education minister, but the latter never budged.”
Single-digit lottery issue
Basavaraj recollected another incident which propped up during the campaigning in 1994, when a woman explained the problems they faced due to single digit lottery. Shivashankarappa raised the issue in the Assembly and got the government to ban it.
This showed the human face of a rich politician, he said. Shivashankarappa and wife Parvathamma had big family of Seven children – Dr Manjula, Sudha, former Zilla Parishad president of Chitradurga SS Bakkesh, industrialist SS Ganesh, Dr Shylaja, Dr Meena Patil and the current cabinet minister SS Mallikarjun.
Shivashankarappa who became an MP in 1997 was defeated in the 1999 Loksabha elections by his relative G Mallikarjunappa of Bheemasamudra. Then his Mallikarjun lost the Loksabha elections narrowly to GM Siddeshwara.
However, in 2024, Shivashankarappa fielded his daughter-in-law Dr Prabha Mallikarjun in the fray and she won the elections. Even though Shivashankarappa was a politician, he was a regular visitor to his Shamanur Kallappa and Sons Traders at Chowkipet.
He used to personally inspect the dal, rice and other grains purchased in his mandi and gave directions to the staff. Basavaraj said he had been with Shivashankarappa in politics for four decades.